The Night Hedgehog : The Vampire Crystle
by Shattered Shadow
Summary: As Rouge faces the task of solving a few murder cases for GUN, she gets a visit from an old friend and makes some new ones. But Shadow is something more than a new friend, as she soon discovers his more darker side, and his enemies. Can she help?
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER 1 -**** OLD FRIENDS AND NEW FRIENDS.**

Rouge sat at her desk, letting her fingers dance over her keyboard as she typed away. She wasn't very fond of her job at GUN but she needed to the money anyway. She thought she had a normal, boring day-to-day job as a mission researcher. All she had to do was research information about different places, objects and people and email it to headquarters so she knew quit a lot about things that went on in and around GUN.

Her typing was interrupted by a phone ringing across the room. She arose from her chair with a deep sigh and walked towards the source of the noise on the small bedside table next to her desk.

''I wonder what he wants now...'' She huffed to herself as she picked up the phone and answering. ''Rouge here.''

''Hello rouge, how have you been?'' A familiar voice spoke from the other end of the line.

She smiled and answered trying not to sound to pleased to talk to her friend. ''Hey knuckles, I'm fine it's just been really lonely here.'' She replied leaning herself back against the wall.

''It must be boring doing nothing but research, huh?'' he chuckled slightly.

''Say that again...'' Rouge sighed straightening herself up and walking over to her computer with her phone in hand. ''So? for what do I owe the pleasure of researching?'' She asked sitting down to her desk.

''Can you just find out about another murder for me.'' Rouge let out a small laugh as she typed.

''Not another one.'' she joked. ''That's the 4Th this week.'' She paused as she scanned a file that came up on her screen. It was a police record of all the murders that had been happening lately. ''I found a file..'' she began as she continued to scan it. Knuckles just stayed silent for a few moments awaiting her to continue. ''apparently they think all the murders were connected somehow, and there's more.''

''Yeah, that's what I thought.'' knuckles said quietly comparing his theory.

Rouge found a few pages with a list of names that they believed may be connected to the killings in the area, but it wasn't just the four names she expected, it was a few pages of names, about 30 different people on each page. ''Hey Knux,'' she said leaning close to her screen. ''Over the past year or so, there has been like.. 20 people killed each month, in different cities around the country, they all seemed to be killed the same sort of way.''

knuckles was deep in thought as he listened to rouge. Neither could come up with anything to say until the red echidna on the other end of the line broke the silence.

''I see.. well thank you Rouge, I must be off to investigate, continue with your work.'' and with that the conversation ended. Rouge sighed and placed the phone back down and leaned back on her chair.

_'Some days I wish some one would come along and kill me..' _she joked to herself, not realising that she could very well get her wish. _'At least it would be better than having to put up with this stupid job.'_

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later that evening, The white bat walked home from her job at the office, as she had a Computer at home she only really needed to go to work at GUN once a week to get her pay check.

The soft layer of frost that had already laced the pavement shimmered in the golden glow of the slowly setting sun. _'Well at least I can take a brake when I get home.' _she thought. As she looked up from the concrete she saw a grey fox standing outside a bar waiting impatiently for some one. She was wearing a blue top and skirt. She smiled as a black hedgehog walked out from the building. He had a long black coat, with a few radish brown stains over the edge of his sleeves and the bottom of his coat. Rouge couldn't really see that much more, except for the top button of his coat that revealed the white fur on his chest, covered with a few small drops of red.

''Took your time.'' the younger girl fox giggled taking a step towards the darker hedgehog, whom didn't say anything. Instead he let out a small groan as he wiped his muzzle clean, as he looked out of the corner of his eye at the white bat walking there way. He smirked as he looked back at the fox next to him. ''What's so funny?'' she asked not noticing that he looked over at the bat coming there direction.

''Nothing, did I say anything was funny?'' he scoffed in a deep voice walking past the fox still keeping eye contact with her until he turn his head away.

''No sir..'' she replied in a soft tone. The darker hedgehog kept walking, soon followed by grey vixen.

Rouge watched as they walked into an alley with the black hedgehog leading the way. she thought to herself turning down a different street.

At the end of the street she came to a large house. She took out her key from her back pocket and unlocked the door, setting down her bag of papers on the floor as she walked in and closed the door behind her, walking over to her crystal white couch that matched her pinkie white carpet. Relaxing herself down into the small pink and white pillows that laced the luxurious sofa.

''What boring a day..'' she complained searching for the remote to the TV. ''I wonder if those two are new to the city, I've never seen them around here before'' Lifting up the remote and flipping threw the channels of the TV.

She stopped on a channel that was talking about the murders that were going on and since there was nothing else on she decided to watch it anyway, in case knuckles may want her to tell him more about them.

she arose from the couch and walked into her kitchen and made herself a cup of coffee as she stood leaning against the counter and watched the TV threw the doorway to the living room.

''The police believe that up to 3 people may be involved in the chain of murders, as 3 different sets of footprints were found at multiple crime scenes, but the crime scenes that find sometimes multiple victims usually found torn into peaces can only seem to find one set of bloody footprints leaving the area.'' Rouge picked up her mug and walked into the living room, planting herself down on the sofa in front of the TV and listening closely taking a few sips of her coffee. ''most eye witnesses describe the suspect to be a shady character in a long black coat. Police are asking to keep a close eye out for him and to report any sightings as soon as possible, and warn that he is extremely dangerous, more on this later.''

Rouge's eyes widened. ''.. That guy..'' She quickly arose from her seat and switched the TV off, placing her mug on the side table and walking to the phone. ''oh god.. what if those two have been behind all this.'' she said talking to herself as she dialled the numbers for knuckles' house. The phone rang continuously but no one answered. ''Damn it knuckle head.'' she growled putting the phone down and walking upstairs. _'I'm going to have to call him in the morning..' _she thought reaching her bedroom door and walking in, hoping that she would have a good night sleep.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rouge sat outside her house on one of the steps leading up to her front door. Her eyes gazed up and down the street. It was morning, the sun was shining bright and the birds were singing. ''what a nice day'' she complemented as she looked down the street at the bar that she had saw the grey vixen and the black hedgehog the night before. It was surrounded by yellow tape that had 'do not cross' repeated over it. Along with four police cars. Rouge thought back to what the news had said about the murders, and she didn't want to be scared about it. She knew that she should tell the police about what she saw, but she couldn't bring herself too, something about that black hedgehog made her feel frightened, yet curious to find out who he was. She rose from the cold stone steps and took a walk down towards the bar, but was stopped by a police officer.

''Sorry miss rouge, I'm afraid you cant come inside.'' he said recognising the white bat. She smiled and looked passed him, trying to get a look inside as to what they were doing.

''What's going on here?'' she asked taking a step forward.

''Another murder.'' He spoke narrowing his eyes at the building. ''Two more people found dead, a girl found with her wrists sliced open, the other a man with his head taking clean off. of course you mustn't tell any one about this, I'm only telling you because your an agent'' Rouge felt sick at the thought and shuddered to think about it. But she nodded.

''Of cores. So? any clues as to who or what may have done this?'' She asked folding her arms to try and make herself feel better.

''Only that both victims seem to be drained of blood, but there was hardly any blood found in or around the room they were killed in, its weird.'' He feel silent for a moment and Rouge didn't want to interrupt it so she just nodded and turned around, walking down the street back to her house and walked back up her stone steps and inside.

''That's weird..'' She said quietly to herself, but was interrupted by a phone call. Slowly walking over to it and answered. ''Hello, Rouge here.''

''Hey rouge, me again.'' It was knuckles.

''Oh hello Knux.'' she replied walking into the kitchen and pulling a glass out from the cupboard and pouring herself a glass of water.

''Rouge, I herd about what happened at the bar the other night'' He began. ''I think you shouldn't be going out, maybe you should come over to my house and stay, until the situation dies down.''

_'Nice choice of words..'_ she thought. ''News spreads fast I see.'' she laughed trying to shake knuckles from sounding so serious. ''I think I'll be OK here, I don't think any killer would attack again in the same street, not with all the police around.'' rouge sounded confident and knuckles felt he could trust what she said.

''yeah your right, but if anything happens tell me ok?''

''I will'' and with that knuckles put the phone down and rouge did the same. She took a small drink from her glass and let out a small sigh as she walked back to her living room, placing the phone back down and sitting on her sofa. When she was interrupted by a knock at the door. ''oh for gods sake'' she growled standing back up and walking to the door.

''this is the house, right?'' a familiar voice said.

''yeah, I'm positive.''

Rouge slowly opened the door and saw the grey fox and a brown wolf standing on her porch.

''hello ma'am.'' the wolf said as a friendly smile came to his face.

''hello..?'' Rouge's eyes travailed from the wolf to the to the vixen standing behind to him. ''your that fox, from the bar last night''

''i see you've met?'' the wolf smirked looking back at her.

''nope.'' she noted scanning rouge from the tip of her ears to the bottom of her shoes. ''but like he said, she saw us leaving. she's a passable threat''

The white bat didn't want to say anything out of fear that these two may be dangerous but she was curious too. ''and you are?''

''oh, I'm sorry.'' the brown wolf spoke turning back to rouge. ''I guess you don't remember me Rouge.'' Rouge's eyes widened as a smile came to her face.

''Rex! I didn't recognise you! god for I moment I thought you were dangerous'' she said stepping back and opening the door fully. ''please come in, it's been a long time'' Rex laughed and walked in, slowly followed by the grey fox. ''what brings you to station square?'' she asked curiously, sitting them down at her dinning room table and making them both a cup of coffee.

''well you know me, I like my adventures.'' the brown wolf took look around the room he was in, he just couldn't seem to drop his smile. ''if you have to know, I'm here looking for something.''

Rouge then sat down at the table and passed across the two mugs with hot coffee. ''what are you looking for all the way in station square?''

''A special gem.'' he announced. ''I thought you might be able to help us, by the way, this lovely young lady is Cassandra, but every one calls her Cass'' A large grin came onto her face as she leaned across the table.

''so, what type of 'special gem' are you and Cass looking for?'' Rouge was very interested in it. She hadn't been out on a search for a special anything in a long while. Cass walked over to the window and looked out at the quite street, one of many that lay around the edge of the city. Rex began to explain in full detail about what he and Cass was looking for and how they came around to looking for it. He explained how he had met Cass and his other darker hedgehog friend but rouge could tell he wasn't telling the whole story about him, Then they had a chat about where they had been and where they were going, taking a few hours to catch up on how the three of them had been over the four years since rouge saw her friend last.

''I see, so a crystal that can help your hedgehog friend?'' rouge said after a few cups of coffee and a very long conversation.

''yes, its rather urgent actually.'' Cass said. She was now sat down next to Rex, leaning back on her chair slightly. She had gotten quit used to rouge now, even though she didn't really like her at first. As there conversation was interrupted by the phone ringing.

''right, well he sounds nice, how about you introduce me?'' the bat asked standing from the table and walking to her phone. ''yeah, this is rouge.. oh hello Knux.. Na i got friends over.. uh huh?.. hm, yes..'' Rex and Cass looked at each other and smiled as they also rose from there seats. ''ok Knux I'll talk later.'' Rouge said placing the phone back down and looking back over at the two canines.

''well rouge, we're staying down the road from here, the large abandoned were house behind the bar.'' Cass spoke walking to the door with her and Rex. ''why don't you come along and we can introduce you too him there.'' Rouge nodded and opened the door as Rex and Cass walked outside.

''it's getting dark, he's bound to be awake soon.'' Rex smiled looking at the grey fox. ''that is if he isn't already''

Cass nodded ''yeah, I better go check.'' and with that Cass ran ahead and down into the alley that lead behind the bar to the were house.

''what do you mean, be awake soon? wouldn't he already be awake, I mean it is the evening'' rouge said trying to get a straight answer.

''you'll understand what I mean once you meet him. He's quite different from normal hedgehogs'' Rex laughed taking rouge by the hand and walking her towards the alley.

_'I wonder what that hedgehog is really like..' _she thought. but her thinking was heavily disturbed by a load scream from down an alley not to far ahead. The bat's body stiffened at the chilling sound, as much as she wanted to run away she also wanted to see what it was.

''damn it'' Rex growled ''excuse me for a moment rouge.'' Rex ran over to the bar and went down a different alley. Steadily she walked towards the alley the scream came from, part of her screaming to turn around. She slowly reached the corner and peeked around the concrete wall that lead around the alley way. Her eyes widened as they focused on a shady figure of a hedgehog in a long black coat that went down to his ankles. He had the younger grey Cass held against the wall by her throat.

''and here you are, Cassy.'' the dark figure spoke with a calm, dark tone.

''Please I'm sorry! Shad, please!!'' the Cass panicked as she struggled to breath.

The black hedgehog smirked and let a small laugh escape his lips. ''well now.. you didn't try and tell on me again, did you?.'' Rouge could here the horrid sound of the grey fox's throat being crushed slowly as she began to choke, desperately trying to breath under the pressure of the dark hedgehog's grip. Rouge couldn't watch much more as she let out a small gasp that echoed threw out the alley quietly. The ebony hedgehog's ear twitched to the sound as he turned his head quickly towards the frightened bat. _'oh shit! now look what you got yourself into!' _she screamed in her head.

''I see we have a visitor Cass.'' he said dropping the girl fox, as she slowly slumped to the floor. Rouge froze as the darker hedgehog walked towards her and stopped, suddenly falling to the floor, knocked out cold from a heavy hit from a baseball bat to the back of his head. Rouge's eyes lifted and met with the person who had hit him.

''sorry about that..'' the brown wolf smirked, placing the bat against his shoulder and looking up at rouge. ''he gets out of hand sometimes.'' He then turned his gaze towards Cass as she stood up.

''thank you Rex..'' she sighed with relief. Rouge swallowed hard and looked back down at the ebony hedgehog. Rex smiled and placed his hand out.

''you alright rouge'' he asked stepping towards rouge.

''yeah I'm fine..'' She found it hard to answer him but she managed to find the right words as she reached her hand out and took a hold of Rex's. The brown wolf smiled and helped Rouge to his side. he turned his head to look at the fox now standing next to him. ''Are you ok Cassandra?'' he asked.

''yeah I'm fine too'' she began. ''what are we going to do with you'' she shook her head as the ebony hedgehog managed to find his way to his feet again as he held the back of his head with one hand and using the other to steady himself as he leaned against the wall for balance, letting out a small growl when he looked over at Rex holding his baseball bat.

''damn Rex.. you didn't have to hit me that hard, I was only kidding.''

Rex rolled his eyes. ''you can't keep letting your self slip like that, you get too far out of hand'' he slid the bat back in his belt.

''if your kidding, I would hate to see you when your serious.'' rouge said calming herself down. The dark hedgehog's gaze met with rouge's as he smirked showing his sharp, pearly-white canines.

''I'm shore you would'' he laughed dusting himself off ''I like to play it serious.''

''yeah, we all enjoy seeing you 'playing it serious', and your not that good at getting a little too serious are you.'' Cass tutted giving him a sarcastic look.

''and who do we have here?'' he asked stepping in the ivory bat's direction. Rouge was quick to take a step back, as she scanned the black and red hedgehog. ''well now don't be afraid of me, I don't bite.. much'' Rouge stood in confusion but took a deep breath, some how she didn't feel so scared of him now that she could get a close up look at him, she actually felt that she liked him.

''well that's a bit of an understatement shad. You always bite.'' Cass laughed crossing her arms and sounding a little cross. She didn't like that shadow was acting a little too friendly towards rouge than he usually do towards strangers.

''I'm Rouge'' she stated holding hand out confidently. Trying her best to ignore Cass and try to trust the ebony hedgehog.

''the names Shadow'' he was quick to answer, placing his hand in hers and shaking firmly giving her a softer smirk than he did before as Rouge's diamond coloured eyes met with his crimson ones as they stood staring at each other in silence for a while.

''OK, now you two have gotten acquainted, maybe we can talk more about that crystal, after all that is why your here rouge'' Cass said braking the silence as they both turned to face her and Rex.

''I have to go out'' shadow's tone darkened slightly as he looked down the streets. Rouge just found it better to stay quite and watch her new friend as he seemed focused more on going out than staying for a chat.

Rex shook his head and gave a loud sigh. ''Shadow.. please can't it wait? besides we cant have you going out all the time, its dangerous, especially with police around'' Rouge thought back to the news she had watched on TV about who they believed had killed all those people, the way they described him she felt that Shadow could very well have done it. But something made her want to know more about this hedgehog, not fear him. She felt that there was more to him than Rex was letting on. Shadow growled under his breath and turned his head away from the street and began walking on down the alley towards the were house. '

''thank you..'' the brown wolf smiled slightly taking rouge's hand and walking with her and Cass, following the dark hedgehog further into the cold alley.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**OK.. first chapter. I know it's kind of random but this is what came to mind. I may add another few chapters or so, passably drag it on into a completely different story or something. I really don't know what the whole story line is going to be but I'll make myself come up with one and finish the story no matter how long it takes. (just as long as it's not forever...) so tell me what you think.. R&R!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. Afternoon Trouble**

The coldness of the alley was blown back by the warmer air from inside the dark were house as Rex pulled up the dusted grey shutter that closed over the entrance. Rouge took a moment to let her eyes wonder about what she could see in the large shaded room that had a faint fragrance of scented candles. Allowing her eyes to adjust slightly to the dark.

A few large wooden crates lined a both sides of the entrance making like a long hallway affect. Some had been ripped open, leaving the floor around them cloaked in bubble rap and polystyrene, and some remained closed in there dusty form looking as if they had been untouched for many years.

Rex and Cass had been talking away quietly, forgetting Rouge's large satellite like ears capable of picking up there convocation rather clearly without any trouble.

"What are we going to do?" Cass asked in concern leaning over to her wolf friend. "I'm afraid that if we don't get the crystal in time he-"

"We'll get it, Cass." Rex interrupted rather harshly, placing his hand on her shoulder to help calm his friend. "Rouge is an expert at special gems. She can help."

Cass let out a small whimper of a sigh and nodded slowly dropping her gaze to the floor. "I hope so." She whispered. She felt as if she could trust anything Rex said with the calm tone and soft smile he had. Rouge also felt the same way. It was something about him that made him almost too calm.

Rouge turned her eyes the opposite direction, as she did so she was startled to find a certain black and red hedgehog was walking beside her.

"Jeez, do you enjoy in scaring me to death." She spoke with a soft laugh as she jumped slightly, but soon relaxed back after a short moment.

"What? I can't walk beside a guest to my own home?" Shadow asked quietly, turning his head away and focused his eyes straight ahead giving a softer smirk than he had before.

"Right." Rouge spoke after a brief space of silence regaining his attention. "So why are you staying at a were house? I mean, why can't you rent an apartment or something?"

"I'm not really a people person." He said in a hushed manner. "Besides, lovely amount of space in here for me to stretch my legs." The ebony hedgehog stopped as they came to the end of the long row of crates leaving a small metal door that led into a small room. The door had been left open, revealing a soft flickering glow from a almost fully melted candle on a small glass coffee table. It was too dim of a room for Rouge to be able to see what was there at first.

"Shadow, you shouldn't leave candles lit" Rex scolded, walking ahead into the room and blowing out the small candle as Cass reached across the wall on her way in, flicking a light switch and brightening the room. Shadow just tutted to himself and picked up the pile of books from on top of the small table and placing them at the side of a large black sofa.

"Why don't you sit down Rouge, make your self at home." Cass smiled sweetly as she dusted off a space on the sofa. "We can talk after Rex helps me get the tea." She suggested, taking the brown wolf into a different room. Rouge let her eyes wonder as she sat herself down and relaxed into the softness of the sofa. The velvet feel of the cochins made her more relaxed, giving a homely sense of comfort for her. The main thing that she liked about the room was the mixed colours and decoration that she paid close attention too. A smaller, black two-seater sofa with white cochins was left of the one she was sitting on. And two seats, one white and one back each with the opposite colour cochins, on the right side of her. The whole room was mainly black and white giving a look to the room that reminded her of an old movie the ivory bat had watched a few days ago. Even the floor was a made from rich, dark chocolate wood sheltered by a large white and black striped design rug.

The whole of the wall behind the sofa she was on was one big bookshelf, laced with books of all sized. It was clear to see that some one loved reading, and it was plain to see who as her attention was turned to the ebony hedgehog as Shadow lazily planted himself down on the sofa next to her, he had no problem with relaxing as he leaned back with his arms arched behind him, resting them on the top of the back of the large black sofa while he lifted his heavy boots and placed them one over the other on the small coffee table with a loud 'clank'. Rouge just smiled as he emitted a long soft yawn. She remembered what Rex had said, and it seemed highly unlikely to her that he had been rested at all today, and if he had then he must not have slept very well.

"Shadow boots off the table!" Cass complained as she re-entered the room with a small plate of biscuits. She placed them down on the glass surface, swiping at Shadow's feet to make him move. And it worked seeing as he was hasty to pull his boots away from her hand.

Rouge had just met Cass a few hours ago but she felt as if she had known her for years. Shadow on the other hand made Rouge feel as if she had found a long lost brother by the way he acted like a spoilt child. She was a little weary of him but curiosity got the best of her and she would rather get to know him before she would start making judgements.

"Na, give him a brake Cass. You can lecture him about your furniture issues later." Rex laughed making a sweeping motion with his hand to signal the vixen to move away from Shadow as he made his way into the room and placed a cup of coffee down in front of Rouge. "Hope you like it creamy, we ran out of sugar days ago." The wolf laughed handing a clear glass of water to Shadow and sat with Cass on the other small sofa.

"Aww Rex you're a life saver." the bat stated in a softened tone just after a sip of the warm drink. The darkest member of the group gave a small sarcastic laugh before bringing one arm in front of him and crossing one leg over the other to help himself to face a direction away from the other three of the room.

"Sorry about this Rouge, he dose tent to get grouchy if he doesn't get his own way." Cass responded as he turned.

Rouge nodded as she leaned forward. "Right, so this crystal." She began.

"The Ambrose Diamond." The dark hedgehog finished, interrupting as he read out from a small book, turning himself to face the other three and tossing it down face up on the table for the others to see. "Clear as glass in the light and deep scarlet as blood in the full moon in the dark." He spoke. The actual words weren't in the book but he did describe what it basically said in his own way of words. "No one knows why it makes these colour changes but it's own legends call it The Vampire Crystal, and so the name has stayed."

Rouge leaned over to the small book, placing her cup next to it on the table. There was a small photo of the crystal on the one page and some info about were it was last seen. She knew the place well, GUN. She had seen the gem a few times but it was always kept in a well lit glass box, clear as glass just as it said, in an empty room full of security cameras and trigger beams, and Rouge knew she couldn't possibly get to it.

"Researching now are we?" Rex smiled as he shook him mind clear of the thought. "Anything Rouge?"

"There is no way I can help you, Rex." Rouge said leaning back and shaking her head.

"What?" The wolf questioned leaning to his bat friend.

"That crystal, the GUN Corporation has it. It's something barley anyone is allowed to see, it's top secret. So much so people brand it a myth." Rouge told as she looked up to meet the gaze of the ebony hedgehog. His rich crimson eyes almost seemed to glow as he smirked and rose from his seat.

"Shadow don't tell me your going after that crystal now." Cass stated also standing from her seated position.

"I do what I please." The dark hedgehog spoke making his way to the door. The grey fox let out a long sigh as she stormed over to her friend.

"Listen Shadow, you have no idea were it is or how to get there, and who knows what security they have there." As much as Shadow wanted to go there right that very second he knew Cass had a point. Letting out a loud groan and walking back over to the sofa and replacing himself on it as Cass did the same after setting the door back to it's more appropriate closed position.

"So why do you need the crystal? I mean I've herd stories about it, that most people call it The Vampire Crystal because the light and dark sides to it, but that's all just legend, right?. So tell me what other reason is there, why do you need it?" The white bat questioned turning her attention to Rex and the room fell silent. The wolf pondered for a moment on what to say and how to say it in a way she would understand him, or at least believe him, while Shadow on the other hand had no problem with thinking about what to say.

"I would have thought you or Cass would of told her by now." He mumbled aloud. Cass let out an angry sigh at Shadow as she cast a glare his way but it didn't seem to bother him.

"Rouge this may sound funny but you know when I told you that Shadow isn't a normal hedgehog?" Rex managed to figure out what to say. Rouge nodded slowly is response.

"Yeah" Rouge answered looking at Shadow and back at her wolf friend.

"Well the only way I can put it is he-" Before Rex could finish Shadow stood from his seat once more, placing his hand in front of Rex to signal him to stop.

"What is it Shad?" Cass whispered leaning forward. The dark hedgehog's gaze was fixed on the closed door to the room. Silence was all that could be herd for three members of the room, but Shadow herd different.

"Some one is out there.. A few, Getting near the door." He told quietly as he lowered his hand and narrowed his eyes, taking a step towards the door. Rouge listened in onto what was behind that door as she leaned forwards, looking past the ebony hedgehog. An extremely faint shuffle and an almost silent footstep on bubble rap was all she could here, it would have been something even she wouldn't of been able to detect, even with her bat ears. She couldn't figure out how a normal hedgehog was able to pick up something so faint and so clear, but that even she couldn't detect. But then again, like Rex had said, he isn't a normal hedgehog.

"I still don't hear anything." Cass whispered a little louder thinking it was just his imagination.

"I do." Rouge answered back as she quietly rose from the sofa. Shadow didn't seem surprised, he just gave a quick backwards glance to the ivory bat and then spun his head back to the door as a loud bang caught his attention and the three others in the room. The metal door was forcefully blown open and small group of four armed GUN soldiers flooded the small room, surrounding the current figures in the room.

"Rouge!" A familiar voice called as one more person entered the room. A red echidna.

"Knux?! What are you doing here!" Rouge gasped as her eyes shifted at all the new faces in the room. Knuckles looked at the dark hedgehog standing next to the white bat, his face the only one in the room who's didn't have a surprised look.

"Rouge, are you ok? I hope these three threats didn't try to harm you." The echidna growled passing glances as he pointed at Rouge, sending one of the soldiers to remove her from Shadow's side and over to Knuckles. "Some one who lives in your street herd a scream, they said they seen a white bat and a brown wolf going down the same alley. And when you didn't come back out they got worried and called the police, so here I am." The echidna Rouge didn't like the sound of that. She wondered what he meant until it finally hit her what she was talking about.

"Knux, don't you get this is just a big misunderstanding?" The bat answered as she stepped in front of the echidna. Knuckles nodded at one of the guards who nodded back, lifting his weapon and pointing it straight at the black hedgehog.

"Stop it!" She spat as she took a few steps backwards. "These are not 'threats', these are my friends!"

"Some friends, You could have been hurt." Knuckles cut in before she could say anything else. The bat didn't want to have to say anything more. She realised that nothing was going to come out of this.

"Hey leave the girl alone." Cass commanded as she took a step forward. As she did so Shadow sat back down. Knuckles set his eyes upon the dark hedgehog giving him a cold glare back. "Your that guy from the crime scene a few weeks ago, aren't you?" Knuckles stated as he scanned the hedgehog. Shadow let out a small smirk and turned his head away.

"What, not happy to see me, red?" He crossed his arms slowly leaving silance to dance around the room as Rouge tried to make sense of the situation. Shadow smirked as he closed his eyes and let out a small unimpressed laugh.

"What? Are you going to try and shoot me like before?" Knuckles growled and looked back at Rouge's confused face.

"Rouge this hedgehog was seen a few weeks ago at one of the murder scenes." He began. Rouge didn't see how that was a big deal. But she listened just in case it got worse. "Two young teenage girls found with their wrists sliced, and when we arrived he was literally licking the blood off his fingers. He's a dangerous criminal." Rex and Cass looked at each other and nodded, The grey vixen then grabbing Rouge's wrist softly before she could think of anything to say back as a blank look came upon her face. Being pulled away slowly, the white bat was to pissed off to give a damn about the current situation, she was to far confused.

"So? What are you going to do?" A deep voice whispered in the ear of Knuckles. The red echidna's head span around quickly as so did the soldiers aiming there guns his direction as Knuckles stared at the black and red hedgehog now behind him, his eyes seemed to turn from a deep crimson to a jet black as he blinked.

"How did you-?" Knuckles began but couldn't finish as a black blur shot passed the echidna causing him to look away slightly. When he turned his head back he saw Shadow had gone only to hear a quick gasp of pain behind him. Rouge couldn't believe how fast Shadow could move. It only added to her confusion. He was like a darker version of sonic too her. Her thoughts were interrupted by Rex and Cass trying direct her to the door, immediately shaking her back out of her daydream.

A small groan of pain caught Rouge's ears from behind her and she span her head around quickly to look back at what was going on, only to see Shadow pinning one of the guards to the wall with his hand tightly grasped around his shoulder. The black hedgehog catching the soldier off guard causing him to drop his heavy weapon hitting the floor with a loud metallic 'clank'.

"Rouge we have to leave now! Don't worry about Shadow, he'll be fine!" Cass called over the sound of bullets being fired as Shadow bit down on the man's neck, his razor-like fangs piecing the skin with ease causing a large trail of blood to run down his shoulder, the hedgehog being quick to rip his fangs out and lick up as much of it as he could when another two soldiers fired shot after shot at him. Shadow let out a small growl of pain with each shot, until he decided he had had enough of the irritating feeling, quickly letting go of the limp form he held before turning around. Licking the crimson substance from around his mouth and smudged across his muzzle being drenched in the blood, watching as Rex and Cass escorted Rouge out of the room quickly before diving on top of the second man and ripping his throat open with his sharp canines.

Rouge didn't know what to make of the scene as she was dragged outside the door. As soon as her eyes relished she was out of the room she took a quick breath and closed her eyes tightly to try and block out the sound of the soldier choking on his own blood, when something grabbed her wrist tightly and began to drag her away, she opened her eyes realising it was Rex and began to run as fast as she could with Cass and Rex at her side.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. Rest**

Back at Rouge's house, She wasn't at all hesitant to dive into the comfort of her home, walking rather fast into the kitchen and leaning herself against the marble counter as she tried to catch her breath. Rex and Cass also out of breath looked out the kitchen window at the alley leading to the were house. Two GUN soldiers and a red echidna running out into the darkened street and into a different street out of view.

"What the hell just happened?!" Rouge insisted too know as the other two turned from the window.

"What I was trying to tell you." Rex spoke between a few short breaths. "I told you he was different."

Rouge didn't think he meant _that_ different. She knew some grate amount of people and all of them different in there own way but she felt this was going a step too far on a scale of difference.

"What is he Rex? Some sort of demon vampire hedgehog?" The white bat coughed, fearing that she already knew the answer.

"I guess you could call it that.." The brown wolf related as he thought about the differences and then remained quiet in doing so, as did the grey fox.

Rouge continued after a brief moment of thinking. "Him, he needs the Ambrose diamond. But why?"

"Rouge this maybe a little too much to take in all in one night." Rex turned his attention back to the vixen, "I think it's best we go find get Shadow, Cassandra. He might try something again." Cass nodded slowly and headed for the door with Rex behind.

"Rex!" Rouge called as she tried to stop him but it was too late as he had already closed the door. "I hope they will be ok." Rouge whispered to her self as she directed herself to the window next to her and watched the two run quietly down the street into the darkness. Her mind was still trying to figure out if there was another reason for what her new hedgehog friend had done. The only possible answer kept coming up into her head but still she tried to dismiss the thought that there could be such thing as vampires, this is real life after all, It was all nonsense to her yet made sense at the same time.

She was quickly shaken back into reality by a huge flash of lightning and crackle of thunder. She hadn't herd the loud pounding of rain begin on the kitchen window that echoed threw out the small home making her feel more shaken and scared than she had previously been.

'_Maybe Rex is right, I need some rest before I go nuts.__'_she thought to try and block out her thoughts of what she had seen that night. Looking at the clock face on the wall seeing it was twenty minutes till seven.

She pulled herself away from the counter and walked into the front room and picked up the mug of cold coffee she had put on the small table next to her sofa the night before. Rouge remembered that security camera photo that the TV had shown on the news report the day before. _'__Knuckles is right, this hedgehog is dangerous but there__'__s something more about him__'_Rouge stood for a moment it think as she placed the mug down in the kitchen on the cold marble surface_**. **_"I need to find out what is going on around here tomorrow." She finally spoke out loud as she turned out of her kitchen into the living room and up the wooden stairs that lay opposite the front door.

Her room was at the end of a long corridor. The door looked like every other door in the house. An almost white wood with a silver door knob with a small heart shaped diamond in the centre. The only difference with this door is it had the name 'Rouge' engraved on a small silver plaque three quarters of the way up the front in a fancy writing, slowly opening the door and taking her boots off before she walked in as not to ruin the cream carpet..

"I need to redecorate in here." Rouge complained as she looked around at the four dark pink walls that hung a few pictures and paintings. She took a few steps over to her dressing table and sat down on the small chair, lifting a picture frame from it and looking at it closely. The ivory bat and a few friends had all grouped together making weird faces and poses for the photo, scanning it closely Rouge's eyes focused in the middle on a blue hedgehog, a yellow fox and a red echidna. She let out a deep sigh as she gazed upon the echidna. She could forgive knuckles as much as she wanted to but it didn't change her mind about him. The fact that she had trusted him for so many years made it hard to stay mad at him, no matter how serious it was.

When her eyes met the other two next to him, the hedgehog and the fox, her mind automatically drifted to Shadow and Cassandra. They looked so alike to one another that she thought this was all some weird dream, or nightmare. "This is just getting too weird." She thought aloud as she compared the ones in the photo to her new friends. "Maybe I should get some rest and I'll forget all about this crap in the morning."

She rose from her chair and placed the frame back down in its position, sitting herself onto the bed and resting her head down on a soft pillow.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Rouge slowly flickered her eyelids open to a small rustling sound, hoping to look up a warm morning sunshine threw her bedroom window, but she soon realised it was nothing more than the soft silver light from the moon and the curtains blowing slowly in the breeze of a partly open window. The rain had stopped a short time ago it seemed as small drops of water sat on the outside surface of the glass.

She lifted herself from the comfort of her pillow and made a gentle yawn, walking to the window and closing it, noising the carpet to be wet. _'__That__'__s weird.__'_she thought as she turned around and looked about the room.

"Hello Rouge." voice came from beside her making her jump back with shock as she turned quickly to face an ebony hedgehog.

"God sake, Shadow. Scare me to death." The white bat laughed over her fear as she realised who it was.

"God has nothing to do with it." He stated looking out from the window at the quiet moonlit street. "Do you know where Cass and Rex have ran off to by any chance?"

Rouge thought for a moment and shook her head. "They left to find you before you got yourself into any more trouble." She responded tilting her eyes down at the bloody stains over his dark coat, causing him to do the same.

"Oh, right." He mumbled as she sat him down on the end of the bed. "I'm sorry you had to see all that, Rouge." Rouge just smiled trustfully.

"Don't move from this spot, ok?." Shadow nodded as the bat walked threw a small door to her left turning the light on, walking into a small bathroom as Shadow watched, taking the chance for his eyes to wonder about the room he was in as he waited.

"So?" came a muffled call from the other room as the sound of running water was herd. "Why do you need the Vampire Crystal anyway?"

Shadow made a deep sigh as he turned his head as he thought about the current question. "Because of what I am."

Rouge walked back in the room with a small wet towel, the hedgehog could clearly smell the strong fragrant of bleach emitting from it as she gently stroked the large stain on his sleeve. "Your soaking wet, Shadow."

Shadow nodded slightly and looked back at Rouge, still thinking to himself. "I had to make shore those another three didn't say anything." Rouge knew what he meant. She just worried about if knuckles was ok, she didn't want anything to bad to happen to him, he was only looking out for her safety after all.

Removing the towel from his sleeve, a small patch of red soaked it to it removing most of the stain, even though it was still rather noticeable she decided it was the best she could do for now.

"It would be best if we could put this in the wash for now." She said as she rose from her seated position and headed for the other door across the room, quickly slipping her boots on. Shadow nodded and got up, following behind her after she left the room.

Rouge steadily made her way threw the dark corridor trying her best not to trip over any unseen objects from in front of her as she reached the stairs.

"Damn it's so dark." She whispered as she tried her best to see where she was going.

"Maybe for you, but not for me." the darker hedgehog spoke making his way down the hall without a trouble as he came up to the white bat. She reached the stairs but had to try and predict where the first step would be as she placed her foot out in front of her, leaning forward until it touched a step. She slowly lowered herself to the first step and made a low sigh with relief as she had found the stairs. Placing her foot out for another step, as a loud bang was herd from outside in the street that seemed to echo threw the house causing her to fall forwards with fright, but was quickly caught in the arms of the dark hedgehog.

"Oh my God! Thank you so much Shad." She gasped as she realised what she had done, quickly giving shadow a soft hug as he set her back down on the right step.

"Are you ok?" He asked with a slight laugh. Rouge nodded.

"I think I'll live, I think I just hurt my ankle there." The ivory bat spoke looking down at her leg and inspected it carefully. She listened closely. "So what the hell was that?"

"I don't know, it sounded like a gunshot." Shadow also listening for any signs that could prove different. "It's ok. I got you if anything bad happens." Rouge smiled softly even though she wasn't even shore if he could see it in the darkness.

"I think I might hold you too that." She knew that he meant what he said and that made her feel safer as she made her way down the stairs with a little help and turned into the kitchen. With a simple flick of her wrist she turned on the lights on her way in.

"Right then, do you want a cup of coffee or something while you're here?" the bat asked as she turned the kettle on and walking to Shadow, who nodded slightly as the white bat helped him to remove his coat revealing some small bullet holes on his back, nothing too serious anymore but she could tell they had been bleeding badly at the time and they looked as if they were really painful.

"Them soldiers got you badly." Rouge whispered loud enough for shadow to be able to hear as she folded the coat in her arms and took a closer look at his back.

"It's nothing I can't handle." He answered as he leaned back against the wall. Rouge sighed slightly as she remembered that he was a vampire after all, but she still felt that it must of hurt him a lot no matter what he was, she knew he needed the help weather he would admit to it or not.

"We're still going to need to get that sorted sooner or later, or your going to have problems." Rouge explained as she tossed his coat into a wash basket.

She tried her best to ignore the small pain in her ankle as she stood on her tip-toes to reach a high cupboard and produced a mug from it and placed it on the marble top.

"How did you know this was my house?" Rouge asked curiously as she gazed out at the street from the kitchen window.

"It wasn't hard to find since you and Cass are the only two I know to wear PinkHearts perfume so following the scent from the were house to here was a breeze." Rouge giggled as she added the coco and sugar to the mug and stirred it all together with the hot water from the kettle and a small teaspoon.

"PinkHearts perfume, huh? What other things can you pick up part from almost silent noises from behind a metal door, a girl tripping on the stairs in complete darkness and her perfume from the end of her street?" She laughed as she passed Shadow his hot mug of coffee. He just smirked as he took a long sip from it. "I'm shore Rex and Cass wont be long." She assured as she watched him quickly gulp down the last of it, not seeming to care about how hot it was.

"Come on." Rouge began with a smile, then walked into the living room leaving Shadow alone for a moment as she turned on the TV causing a bright light to flicker around the room as she scanned threw the channels as she listened in onto anything that she may find important or interesting.

But she found neither so she simply left it on a random channel as Shadow made his way into the room "If you need anything don't hesitate to ask or simply help yourself, ok?" She spoke softly with a slight laugh as she sat him down. He just seemed really tired as he lazily leaned back into the comfortable cochins and closed his crimson eyes. Rouge checked the clock on her wall too see that it was coming up to three thirty. She pressed a button on the remote and turned the volume down low as she listened to the dark hedgehog's soft, heavy breathing, so she decided she wouldn't try to disturb him.

"I'll see you when you wake up." She whispered with a smile as she sat herself down on the comfortable armchair next to the sofa, emitting a soft long yawn and let herself drift off to sleep as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Quiet Morning**

Rouge let out an almost silent yawn as she shifted herself up into a more comfortable sitting position as her eyes soon gazed over to the powder white sofa that lay in front of her. It wasn't hard to notice the black hedgehog lying down on his back calmly asleep looking as if he had barely moved an inch the whole time. She watched as he lay motionless, not a single breath entering his body. The quietness of the room calmed her slightly, and before she realised what had woken her, a light knock at the door had then repeated itself as the white bat pushed herself off the comfortable chair.

She steadily made her way to the door, opening it slowly as it let out a small creek, Rouge was then greeted by a grey vixen that had been stood behind the wooden door. "Hello Cass, I see your back" she said in almost a whisper as too not wake the sleeping hedgehog a few feet away.

"Hey Rouge" She spoke softly after Rouge. "Rex is hurt on his shoulder, is it ok if we can get him bandaged up here?" She too spoke quietly as she pointed at the Brown wolf sitting next to her on the small garden wall using his hand to try and pull his opposite shoulder forwards to get a look at a bleeding wound on the back of it. Rouge nodded.

"Oh, yes of cores." She approved with out hesitation as she parted herself from the doorway to allow Cass and Rex to enter.

"I see Shadow had no problem with getting comfortable." Rex smiled threw his pain as his green eyes noticed the black figure on the sofa. Rouge in turn smiled with him.

"He went off like a light." She explained as the trio gazed at the peaceful looking hedgehog. "It's good that he got some rest. He needs it by the look of him." Rouge escorted the two canines into the kitchen. "Honestly, you would think he was dead by the way he sleeps."

"Well technically, he is." Cass smiled as she sat Rex down on a chair and inspected the brown wolf's shoulder as Rouge rummaged in a small draw, pulling out a small green plastic case. "Got it." She spoke as she handed it to Cass. The vixen slowly opened it with a low 'click' of a not so affective lock as she peered inside.

"Awesome, thanks Rouge." She grinned taking out a roll of white cotton fabric and began to unravel it around Rex's bleeding shoulder.

"Ow! Easy there Cassandra, any tighter and my arm will fall off." The brown wolf wined as he attempted to tug his arm away, but to no use as he just seemed to make it hurt more.

"Well maybe if you stop complaining and stay still it wouldn't hurt as much." Cass spoke harshly as she ripped the peace of bandage to the right length and tied it. "There we go, Rex."

The ivory bat watched with a smile as Rex pushed himself from the comfort of his chair and rolled his shoulder around to test it out. "Thank you." He groaned as he forced himself to smile threw the painful sensation in his shoulder.

"Your welcome…" She answered. She stood and listened for a moment. "…It's so quiet." Turning her attention back to Rouge, who was waiting to ask a question that had been on her mind for some time. "Rouge?" The grey vixen tilted her head slightly to meet the bat's gaze as she stood and awaited her question.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Rouge finally asked while leaning herself against the cold marble counter. Cass nodded.

"Well you see, we chased after Shadow when he headed after the other two soldiers and that echidna." She began as she sat herself down on one of the chairs and made herself comfortable. Rex taking a small walk around the room but it didn't really distract Rouge or Cass much. "Shadow took care of the soldiers before we had got there so we told him to go back to the were house and wait while we went after the echidna."

"He must of decided to check on you." Rex piped in as he stood by the doorway watching the sleeping hedgehog. Rouge folded her arms across her chest as she pondered about it, emitting a small laugh under her breath as she did so. Rex looked back waiting for an answer to prove different, leaning his relaxed form against the pale wooden door frame.

"I don't think so, when he turned up in my room he wanted to know where you two were. But I insisted that he wait for you and Cassandra." She explained as she looked back into her memory.

"Fair enough." Rex nodded as he took himself away from the door frame and straightened himself up with a small stretch.

"As I was saying, Rex and I went after that echidna, and Rex knocked him out with his bat, but not before ended up getting himself shot." The wolf rolled his eyes and crossed his arms after she was finished, Rouge just stood and thought back further, she then realised, the loud bang must have been the gunshot she and Shadow had herd on the stairs but she didn't say anything about it. She didn't think that much of it anyway. But then again, she had realised that everything was unusually quiet around the house and street since Shadow decided to 'check in on her', as Rex put it.

"Well I think you both need your rest." She suggested as Cass and Rex shook their heads softly almost in sync with each other.

"Thanks for the offer Rouge but it's a good idea to stay a good distance away from Shad when you have an bad injury." Rex explained as he rubbed his bandaged shoulder and laughed a little to lighten the moment. "Just the smell of blood around him can make him go crazy some times."

Rouge nodded to show that she understood perfectly. She felt a little disappointed that they where going to leave so soon but she knew it was for the best as the two canines made there way out from the softly lightened kitchen.

"When Shadow wakes up tell him me and Rex went back to the were house to clean up. Then we need to have a talk about getting that crystal." The grey fox requested, Rouge nodding as Cass looked back before walking out the door and closing it behind her with a small click of the latch as it did so.

Rouge let out a long sigh and turned to see the black and red hedgehog sitting up and watching with curiosity. It was clear he had been watching them the whole time but they hadn't noticed.

The white bat put her hands on her hips and shook her head as she looked at shadow in disappointment.

"And how long have you been awake?" She questioned while making her way over to the sofa, Shadow moving his legs off so she could sit down.

"A lot longer than you have." He smirked causing Rouge to do the same.

"You know you could of said something." The white bat spoke as she sat down and made her self comfortable upon the cushions. "I thought you wouldn't of herd the door by the way you were sleeping."

Shadow shook his head slightly. "That's because I didn't." He began but decided to chance the subject onto what he considered more important at that time. "So what are we going to do about that crystal?"

"We can discuss that later, when Rex and Cass are finished." Rouge commanded as she turned and opened the door once more allowing a calm breeze to sweep the shaded room. Shadow hushed himself for a moment and awaited the ivory bat to speak once more as she stood and stared out into the open street. Nothing but silence was herd for both members of the room, eerie enough, the house was silent. The street was too.

Rouge had began to get suspicious about how quiet it was a while ago, and she wasn't the only one. The dark warrior was also starting to get suspicious, even for him this was too quiet, for the only sound to be herd for him was the soft rhythmic sound of the white bat's calm breaths and a soft beating in her chest as she took an almost silent step forward.

Neither wanted to speak or even dare brake the chilling silence as they awaited something to brake it for them.

'_Something is wrong here.._' The white bat thought as she gazed around outside her door, the street that usually had cars running up and down it or children playing outside in the morning sun this time of day.

"I'm going to guess this isn't normal." The ebony whispered in her ear quietly as to not scare her from the sudden noise, but it still sent a quick shiver threw her body.

"Shad, Something is wrong. Its too quiet." She feared as she managed a low whisper. She did wonder how he got to her to fast and so quietly but she shook it away from her thoughts as she walked, with Shadow close behind, to a house just opposite her own.

The curtains were still drawn in every window of every house, apart from those who Rouge knew didn't like to close them, so it wasn't as simple as looking threw the window to see if anyone was home. Shadow straightened himself up, out stretching his left arm in front of him and allowing his fingers to fold themselves one by one around the brass doorknob of the front door. Surprisingly it had been left ajar by an inch so all he had to do is slowly push it open. The old hinges connecting the door to it's frame emitted a long 'creek' as it turned away from them revealing a long hallway.

"Looks like some one forgot to close the door behind them.." Rouge murmured as she peered inside.

"..Or, some one was expecting us." The dark hedgehog assumed as he lifted his heavy boot and placed it onto the wooden floor of the hallway and lifted himself into the shaded entrance of the home.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**This was kind of… rushed I suppose, and it is really short, but I haven't had much time to finish chapters lately. Damn night shifts are making me tired as hell so I don't really have much times since I'm sleeping 80 percent of the day and working all night o.-**

**Ah well, hope you enjoy and hopefully I can get the other chapter finished ASAP. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 - The Watcher**

Rouge felt uneasy about her current situation as she brought herself to enter the quiet home, following close behind the dark hedgehog as he slowly made his way threw an open door to his right, leading him into the dark living room.

"Hello? Mr Edwards? Is there anyone home?" Rouge called as she took a moment to observe her surroundings, but she didn't seem to get any answer from the quiet house. The obscure hedgehog next to her remained silent as he thought. A small creek from inside the room had caught his attention. He turned his gaze towards another doorway to his left, noticing a small flash of red light and what seemed like a shadow quickly disappearing into a different room, but he shook it off as part of his imagination.

"Shadow, maybe they went out or something." The white bat spoke stating the obvious, or what she thought was obvious. Shadow stood for a moment to make shore there was nothing he had overlooked before giving a slight nod.

"Shore. I suppose." The dark hedgehog's scarlet eyes shifted as he turned his attention back the white bat.

"Then maybe most people are still in bed? I mean it is a Sunday morning." Rouge suggested as she turned herself around to face the ebony hedgehog. "You never know. There is a church about a mile down the road, maybe they decided to go?"

"Well there isn't a soul in the house…" He observed as he then turned and made his way back out the room. "…Not anymore."

Rouge wasn't quick to follow him, she wanted to look around more, but as soon as he was out of sight she felt another eerie silence fill the house and was soon making her way outside.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

She slowly turned and took a few steps from the garden path and back into the quiet street, only lighted by the faint sunlight that peered threw the heavily clouded sky. It was both calming and worrying. A small 'bleep' sound from her left pocket then caught her attention after she had finished inspecting the morning sky.

"Who is it?" Shadow questioned. He had also noticed the high pitched noise and had recognised it.

"How the hell should I know? I haven't answered it yet." She growled at his small spark of stupidity as she reached in and took out a small pink and black device, pushing a button and holding it to her ear. "Yeah, this is Rouge."

"Miss Rouge, for 6 hours and 27 minutes we haven't had any communication from Knuckles the echidna after he left HQ to assist you…" A voice from the other end of the line spoke clearly. Rouge nodded even though they wouldn't be able to see it. "…I understand you are safe but have you any idea of the whereabouts of Agent Knuckles?"

Curiosity about the current question almost surprised her, she remained silent for a brief moment until it got the better of her and she decided that she had to find out what it was about.

"What are you saying? I haven't seen Knux since Dr. Eggman's robot attack weeks ago."

Shadow almost laughed at the mention of the doctor's name, but he managed to pull himself together before he did so. "The doctor, eh? Haven't seen him in a while." he whispered to himself, Rouge's satellite-like ears able to over hear him. Rouge didn't think that he knew who the doctor was, but then again, he wasn't the most unpopular of people, with over twenty world domination attempts in each of the seven different contents around Mobius in the last year, he was quite famous for his failed attempts of ruling Mobius.

Rouge continued to chatter along with the person on the other end of the Small phone as Shadow's mind wondered. Slowly turning his head as he was about to walk off into a different direction from the house when something in the attic window caught his eye. Two small red orbs belonging to a vague appearance of a figure that stood almost hidden behind the dusty glass, soon turning itself away and disappeared back into the attic. Shadow's eyes narrowed to the dull room. "What.. Was that?" He growled under his breath as he tried to match it to any explanations he could think up.

Rouge sighed and slipped the device back into her confinement of her pocket, too focused on her current call to keep herself aware of Shadow or her surroundings.

"I didn't think you would know the Doctor." She smiled as she quickly moved herself to the hedgehog's side, distracting his deep thinking.

"Trust me, it's a long story." The ebony hedgehog took a moment to allow his gaze explore the other few windows of each house, the smell of rain played with his senses as he shook it off and began walking away. "Its going to rain, we should leave." Rouge simply nodded and followed, still having a weird feeling in the back of her mind.

"Hey Shad, have you gotten that feeling where it's like someone or something is watching you?" Rouge indicated as she observed the houses, the strange feeling of eyes in every window starting to creep her out, slowly drifting her gaze to the dark hedgehog. She felt she wasn't the only one getting bad vibes from the over quiet street as she realised Shadow seemed a lot more to himself than he had been since she met him.

"Yeah.." being his only response. He had always seemed to be the down to earth type so Rouge just shook it off as the same feeling. It wasn't mainly that it was so quiet, it was rather peaceful like that, it was more or less the feeling that something bad was about to happen to them that worried Rouge.

"Be on your guard." Shadow commanded as Rouge nodded. It seemed something strange for him to say, his words only conformed his fears that something bad may happen.

"Got it." Rouge was going to add something else but not before the ebony hedgehog spoke again.

"We should get you inside before it rains again." he continued as he began to walk towards her home. Rouge didn't know weather to be serious or to try and lighten him up a little. She didn't want to go anywhere if it was going to rain, she didn't want him to go anywhere on his own either.

"Just as long as you stay with me. I don't want to be on my own." Rouge requested. Shadow shook his head faintly.

"Shore, what ever. You should go on and finish what ever errands you need too." Rouge didn't want to argue. All she could do for now is settle for a long sigh and admit defeat for now, as she knew he was stubborn, almost reminding her of a certain red echidna. Following a few feet behind the sable hedgehog as he continued, when a small thought was triggered in her mind.

"Shadow, would you know a 'Sonic the hedgehog' by any chance?" The white bat's curiosity got no answer as Shadow pondered for a moment. This was a question that she wanted answered from the first day she saw him, outside the bar with Cassandra.

"I know the name. I don't recall ever meeting him." He explained as his figure remained not facing Rouge.

"Your so alike, and yet.. So opposite. It's complicated.." That, for now, was all Rouge had to explain. Shadow understood most of what she was getting at. Sonic, being a hedgehog famous for his speed, had come up in numerous occasions where Shadow had been asked if he was related to the blue hedgehog. Even though he had never seen him, apparently they looked alike, and Rouge spotted it the first time she met the dark warrior too.

'_A hedgehog with speed to match my own…' _Shadow thought as small, cold drops of water began to damper his nightly black and crimson fur. _'…the fastest living creature on Mobius. That will be interesting.'_

Rouge ran up to her doorstep and stood awaiting Shadow to join her as he slowly made his way up to the door. "Come on, it's starting to rain." She complained with a slight wine as she opened the door and stepped inside, soon followed by the obscure hedgehog. The bat shook her impermeable gloves free from a few small drops of water and began to saunter up the shaded stair way, taking her time to cast a glance back down at the foot of the stairs to Shadow.

"I need to finish a project report for GUN, maybe I can get some more information about that Vampire Crystal while I'm at it." She suggested. "Will you be ok down here, or would you like to come up?"

Shadow, still contemplative, nodded blankly at the question. The ivory bat stood for a moment in silence, until she emitted a long sigh. "Is that a 'Yeah, I'm fine down here on my own.' or a 'Yeah, I would love to come up and help with your report so you will have more time on your hands to research that crystal and we can get this whole damn situation sorted out and get on with our lives.'?" Rouge spoke calmly trying to get the hedgehog's attention as he shook his head back to reality.

"What?" He questioned faintly as he was distracted from his thoughts. Rouge rolled her eyes.

"You know which room is mine. If you get bored down here come upstairs." She instructed as she placed her hands firmly on her waist as Shadow again nodded, this time both understanding what he was agreeing too.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**A/N - Well.. This one was slow. I did need most help from a friend of mine seeing as I didn't think I was going to get this done with me having a weird problem with my computer (you know the one, Where it doesn't seem to save any of your work….).**

**So this, again was rather scruffy o.- and I was planning to have another chap done by Sunday but we shall see. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6 - Bloody Information**

The shuffle of card bored boxes, polystyrene and wooden crates echoed among other various objects that filled the large were house room. The grey vixen took a deep breath as she stood back and brushed the dust away from her nose and she tired to breath without sneezing. Cass leaned back against one of the hard wood crates as she watched the brown wolf drag a newly opened crate across to the other pile behind him.

"Maybe we could take a brake, Rex. I mean, the police have no clue so there isn't any worry, right?" Cass suggested as she helped him out with the large and rather heavy crate.

"I guess we should check in on Rouge and Shad." The wolf answered as he dusted off his hands.

"And what are you going to do with them soldiers now?" The fox questioned as she lifted herself to the crate they had just moved and sat herself down comfortably on the wooden surface.

"Nothing a little gasoline cant fix." He them commented with a mischievous smirk as he lifted an unopened can from a box beside him and set it down besides two newly sealed crates, they held two of the soldiers in each one.

Cass smiled at the idea and leaned herself forwards onto the edge. "We should go. You can torch them after we check up on Shadow and Rouge." She spoke as she pushed herself off. Rex nodded as the fox began to make her exit with the brown wolf close behind.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile, Rouge leaned back on her chair slightly, folding her fingers firmly together and outstretching her arms causing the joints of her fingers to click to place loudly. The dark hedgehog laying on his side on the comfortable bed as he played with a small black feather, watching the white bat as she was typing. He had gotten bored of the quiet downstairs, and had run out of small glass marbles to throw at various cats and birds, and any other animal that had been occupying the back garden. Or more like ran out of living targets to hit, and had decided to aid the ivory bat in her report.

"Well that's the last of it." Rouge smiled with relief as she span around on her chair to face the darker hedgehog who was inspecting the small ebony quill.

"So what was the whole report about?" He inquired as he pressed his hand down onto the soft mattress to help him sit himself up.

"Nothing too important." She replied, lifting herself from her seated position and walked over to her small alarm clock at the bedside. "You see, a few years ago a bunch of scientists and genetic researchers came up with a theory. An idea that they felt could change the genetic code of animals to create new, super animals or something.."

"..But like always something went wrong. Am I correct?" Shadow finished. Rouge nodded and pulled her chair towards her and sat herself back down in front of the hedgehog.

"Most died after an accident that occurred, a generator over heated and blew the place sky high." She lingered for a brief moment as she made herself comfortable on her stiff chair that she currently resided.

"And, what happened to what ever survived?" Shadow was very curious as too know every thing he could about the strange incident.

"GUN took any animals or objects that survived to be immediately terminated. Then Dr. Eggman took the idea on, but he wasn't so successful either." She finished explaining. Shadow pondered for a moment and nodded, lifting himself up and walking to the window.

It wasn't so wet outside anymore, it was only a quick shower after all, and by now few cars had passed by the house livening the street a little more, with few people pacing the sidewalk. Two figures making their way to the house caught Shadow's attention as he smirked at the sight of his two other companions.

"Here comes Rex and Cassy." He commented as he turned to see Rouge opening her bedroom door.

"Come on then." She called as she motioned with her hand for him to follow her. The darker hedgehog began to walk her direction, the ivory bat then turned and strolled down the hallway and made her way down stairs to the front door.

"Hello Rouge, how has Shadow been?" Rex smiled as the door in front of him opened to reveal the waiting Rouge and a dark hedgehog making his way down the stairs behind her.

"I'm fine thanks for asking, Rex." He smirked as he reached the door, leaning himself against the banister.

"You took your time." Rouge commented as she parted herself from the door and allowed the two canines too enter.

"Sorry if we took long, we had to take care of a few things." Cass told as she made her entrance, the four of them walking into the front room and sitting down.

"Right, now with most delays out of the way, the crystal." The wolf moved on, changing the subject. "We now know where it is, now we need to figure out how we are going to get to it, and get it out as quick and as safe as possible."

The trio around him nodded confidently together with understanding.

Rouge stood from the other members of the group and walked over to a small cabinet against the wall and took a folded piece of paper from a draw, setting it down on the coffee table in front of the others.

Cass smiled as she realised what it was. "Awesome, a map!"

"Wow.. That was hard to figure out." The darker hedgehog besides her spoke sarcastically with a slight hint of laughter, he then folded his arms neatly across his chest as he leaned forward for a closer look as he inspected it.. "A map of what though?"

The grey fox sat for a moment as she gave Shadow a cheeky smile. "cheeky hedgehog" she laughed as the two male members of the room broke to a smirk as they awaited her to continue. Her large fluffy tail swaying eagerly from side to side as she unfolded the paper out on the coffee table for all too see.

"I took it from Knuckles yesterday." Rouge smiled as she observed the other three members of the room as she too folded her arms. "I thought it might help."

Shadow, attempting to ignore the swaying annoyance in front of his face, examined the many lines and small text that filled the paper. He could figure out most of what the inside would have looked like, but this was just a rough idea of what the first floor looked like.

"All the floors look very similar. The layout of the rooms, stairs and elevators are all in the same sort of place. Except the 21st floor which is the General's office." Rouge explained as best she could as she leaned over and pointed at the various spots on the map giving the trio around her a good idea of what the place would look like.

"Ok, I suppose they have a very high security?" Cass questioned as she sat back a little. Rouge smiled.

"Yeah, that's why I need you too disable the security network as best you can too allow Shadow and Rex to get inside." The white bat pointed out. "You are going to need at least two people to get inside, going alone is suicide. So I need Rex for his power and his little ability to be able to think on his feet…"

"Thanks" the brown wolf mentioned as she paused. Rouge nodded and continued.

"…And Shadow to back him up with his speed. As you most probably will run into a fight" Shadow nodded.

"And here I thought Shad was 'all bite and no fight'." The vixen giggled to her self and she glanced back at the dark hedgehog who did nothing but smirk at the cheeky comment that had been replied to his earlier remark. Rex and Rouge couldn't help but laugh along, the wolf holding up his hand to Cassandra as she turned and gave him a quick high-five.

"Chill you two." Rex chuckled as he leaned back in his seat and sighed. "I miss when we used to do this."

Cass looked at Rex puzzled at what he meant. "We used to do…?" She paused awaiting him to end her sentence.

"Sitting around a table to plan what ever place we go next. Have a laugh about our passed adventures and live life without a care in the world, and then Jasmine and Violet…" He paused as he directed his gaze to the floor. Cass patted his back softly as her smile faded. Rouge didn't want to ask anything as she knew it must have been something really bad to make Rex upset so easily, but she felt she had too find out.

"Could I ask… what happened?" She spoke softly as she sat down across the small table from the two canines.

"Back before we met Shadow. My sister, Jasmine and Rex's sister, Violet, used to travel with us a lot." The grey fox explained as Shadow turned his head away, Rouge listening with too much interest to notice the dark warrior move from his seated position to stand at the window a few feet away.

Rex decided to pick up from there as he smiled softly. "Once, we where in Romania. Jasmine and Violet had gone out for a walk in the park at night." He began. "There wasn't anyone around at night so we presumed they would be safe... And when they didn't return for a few hours we started to get suspicious so we went out after them." Rouge nodded slowly as she awaiting one of them to continue once more. Cass doing so.

"We searched the streets for hours until we found a dark blue cat, so without thinking twice we confronted the cat and he led us to an old house. He didn't go inside as he said his friend had instructed him to stay away."

--

"_Please, I only pray I am not too late for you." The dark sapphire cat spoke as he began to back away from the two worried canines. _

"_I thank you dearly." Rex called as he rushed to the door with the vixen at his side. Hastily grabbing the door handle and turning it quickly while pushing it open with all his might. The room was dark as he rushed in, but the dim candle light was all he needed once his eyes adjusted. The pair gasped at the scene they saw before them, their younger sisters chained to the wall by their now bleeding wrists where they apparently had tried to struggle free from the shackles._

_ A dark hedgehog bend down at the side of a chestnut coloured wolf, next to her a purple fox, both covered in blood from a bleeding wound on their necks and from their wrists, other than that they looked as if the two females were sleeping peacefully. A cackle of laughter grabbing their attention as they turned to see a dark scarlet bat sat in a large chair, well more of a throne than a chair it seemed. His long, sharp fangs that almost overlapped his bottom lip as he grinned, sending a chill down Rex's spine as he moved Cass with his hand to stand behind him._

"_So frightened, I see. A shame that emotions come to destroy the soul so easily." He chuckled as he tilted his head to one side to inspect the two young canines in his presence._

"_What in God's name are you and what have you done to our sisters?!" Rex commanded as he gritted his teeth together in an attempt to block out his overpowering fear and hatred. _

"_A shame that even angels can come to fear God. Don't you think?" He laughed once more shifting a clawed finger towards the two. "I was only planning on having one meal tonight but it seems you can stay for dinner." _

_The ebony hedgehog rose from the floor as he turned his head to face the two confused and fearful canines. His muzzle stained a deep crimson with long scarlet fangs peering from his mouth as he approached the two with a deep growl of interest, the fox and the wolf steadily backed away from his deep black eyes that watched them carefully._

"_Quickly! Get out of here!" A voice from behind called as the two canines turned to face who stood beyond the open door. Rex was slightly relieved and surprised to see that the sapphire cat from a few minutes ago had returned with a black and white cat. In his hands he held a small white crystal. That was the last thing on Rex's mind at that moment as he grabbed Cass' hand and began running away from the small building and the ebony hedgehog behind him. He didn't want to leave the sisters behind but he had no choice. He wasn't going to lose Cassandra too._

_The hedgehog simply smirked as he parted his sharp fangs from his blood stained mouth and dashed at the feline with speed, but the black cat quickly stepped out of the way as the creature came to a halt about two feet away. _

"_Go to hell." The cat spat as he jumped towards the hedgehog as it turned, pressing the sharp point of the crystal deeply into it's throat as he began to choke in pain, unable to remove the bloody object. He slowly dropped to the ground with his own blood dripping down his nightly fur of his chest as he attempted to claw the object from himself, backing over to the house as he did so._

"_What on Mobius are these creatures?!" Cassandra cried as she watched the now defenceless hedgehog drop to his knees with a loud growl._

"_They are but demons." He growled as he inspected the weakened hedgehog, the small crystal in his neck turning a deep red and fading into a jet black. "He's a night hedgehog. A vampire." _

"_Drano, I haven't seen you in a good hundred years." A deep voice came from the house. The cat turned to face who it was as he recognised him instantly. _

"_Let them go, Drake." The black cat growled as the red bat bent down to the nearly unconscious form of the hedgehog, panting slightly to try to help himself deal with the pain. He reached over and removed the small crystal with ease as he inspected it closely._

"_Come now. Draining a vampire of his power isn't a very nice thing to do." Drake smiled as he patted the ebony hedgehog and stood up. "Shame I have no time to play as the morning is nearing." He chuckled while slipping the crystal into his pocket and vanished in a flash of red light. Drano bend down beside the black hedgehog and was happy to see that the small wound on his neck was healing allot slowly than it would have normally. But Rex and Cass had another ideas as they rushed inside the home and freed their sisters, both still weak but alive._

"_What are you going to do with this one, Drake's strongest night hedgehog?" The sapphire cat questioned as he too allowed his eyes to inspect the small wound. _

"_Give him a few days and we shall see if it helped or if he turns back again." Was all Drano spoke for the time being as he stood. "If he dose turn evil again we shall have to destroy him. You know that there are only two of them crystals on Mobius and now Drake has one of them."_

"_So he's not evil anymore?" A soft weak voice came from beside him. Both cats turn to face the purple fox that leaned against her older grey sister. _

"_No, he is nothing more than a shadow of his former self. For now." Drano spoke adding the last part quietly._

_The fox smiled. "Shadow. That's a nice name." The cat smiled faintly and nodded. "Its not his fault he's the way he is, please have kindness in your heart to allow him to live." Again the cat nodded. Cass smiled as she began to help her sweet sister down the wooden step from the door._

--

Again Rouge nodded. She wasn't shore what to think for the moment. She felt both happy and sad about it as she saw that Rex and Cass had began to smile softly as they thought back to what Jasmine had said.

"And that was that. We took Shadow back and Jasmine took him under her wing. They where so sweet together, she was always nice to people, ya' know? She could see the good in people."

Rex laughed slightly at the comment. "Yeah. And then when Jasmine and Violet decided it would be safer if they went home, Shadow stuck with me and Cassandra."

Shadow smiled to himself as he watched the few cars pass the street. "We had some fun times over the years." He acknowledged.

Rex and Cass nodded. "Yeah.." they spoke together.

"Then Shadow began to get headaches every now and then, and he would have this weird craving for blood. And he would go out at night and come back covered in blood and being unable to remember anything about it. This was only from time to time but lately it's been getting more frequent and we're worried he may be slipping."

Rouge felt she understood. "I see, that explains allot." She nodded as she watched the dark warrior come to sit down again. "Looks like we are going to have to get going."

Cass smiled as she sat herself up right. "Ok. Lets make a plan!" She explained excitedly, the other three of the room joining her in a small cheer.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**A/N - Well only one day over what I was going for but at least I got the explaining out of the way. Lol quiet a twisted bloody background but hey, I feel evil today :3 -evil laugh-**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7 - Expecting The Unexpected**

"Wait, let me get this straight… Rex can golf?!" The ebony hedgehog exclaimed as he sat himself up suddenly, causing himself to choke on his cold glass of water, which he almost dropped in the process.

"Easy Shadow. You don't want to choke to death." The grey vixen next to him giggled trying to contain her laughter more over the hedgehog than Rex, who in the mean time sat with his arms folded casting an unimpressed glare at Shadow for his immature nature of the situation.

"Yeah, like that's possible for someone like me." The hedgehog then huffed sarcastically as he wiped his muzzle clean.

"Can we focus, Shad?" The wolf growled as shook his head with disappointment.

"As I was saying." Rouge cut in. "If we get it passed weapons department and the science block then its home free from there." The bat smiled as she finished drawing with purple marker between the many small lines and symbols. The strong aroma that emitted from the small marker pen made Shadow cringe every time she took the lid off, so Rouge decided to try and only use it when she had too mark out something important.

"Right then." Cass smiled as she rubbed her hands together eagerly. "I think Shadow can come with me back to the were house to take care of the mess he made." Rouge had to ponder for a brief moment, but soon nodded in agreement understanding what she meant.

"Shore. What ever." Shadow commented with a slight shrug as he rose from his seat. Cassandra happily took the hedgehog's hand and pulled him towards the door.

"We could use some quality time, Shad. Just you and me." She almost laughed as she opened the door and disappeared out of it, along with her ebony friend dragged close behind her.

"Is she always this weird when they get 'quality time'?" Rouge giggled as she relaxed herself back. Rex smirk widened as he rose himself from the comfort of the fluffy cousins of the sofa and gave a long yawn and stretch. The ivory bat could tell that was probably a yes as she sat up and made herself comfortable in that position. "So.." She began. "…You golf then?"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Later, The two team mates arrived at the shaded were house. Cassandra carefully inspected the entrance of the stone and metal building, one of the large metal shutters that separated the cold alley air from the warm indoors.

"What's this?" She growled with confusion and curiosity as she bent down to the corner of the entrance. A rather large tare in the metal, scratches along with a large chunk ripped out, had been roughly torn from the frame.

"What the bloody hell is that?" The hedgehog besides her questioned sharply as his eyes widened to it. "Cass, what the hell is going on?" He demanded but got no answer except a small 'hmm'.

Both of them stood in almost silence for a brief moment as the grey vixen attempted to squeeze her form threw the hole without catching herself on any small shards or the sharp metal edges. She slowly made her way towards what she felt was the location of the light switch on the wall, flicking her wrist to turn it on. Shadow also managing to fit threw the tight gap and gazing upon the newly lighted room, still slightly dull from a light bulb that had burnt out long before they moved in.

"Is there anyone here?" Cass whispered as she directed herself to Shadow, whom gave an un-shore look.

"I'm not shore." He replied as his scarlet eyes examined the room.

"What do you mean? Yes or no?" She spoke in confusion as she too observed the room. A certain two crates had been opened, more or less the same way as the door, and the contents missing apart from a few small rips of bloody clothing and peaces of wood littering the floor. "Who or what…?"

"I don't know." The dark hedgehog finished after Cass paused, expecting what she was going to ask. "I cant sense anything." Shadow took a few small steps forward, his eyes still exploring the room. He could suddenly feel a strange presence of another aura in the room besides his own and Cassandra's, the feeling that someone was once again watching them, a heavy and dark feeling, like a chain around his chest slowly tightening till he could barely breath, dawned on him once more. The same feeling he had gotten in the house across the road.

"Shadow…" Cass nervously spoke at she lifted a finger and pointed towards the rafters of the ceiling. Shadow directed his attention above him as she did so, his ruby eyes widened while he shakily began taking a few steps backwards towards the grey fox.

Sat rather comfortably on a thick wooden beam was a dark scarlet bat, dressed in a short leather vest, long black trousers with chains connected here and there, and large black boots laced with small metal spikes. Also having large black wings on his back, his eyes pitch black with a slight glow and two long knife-like fangs that hung from his mouth almost passing his chin.

"Well hello my old friend." He smirked as he lifted himself from his seated position and dropping down to the floor, planting his heavy boots into the concrete a few feet in front of Shadow with a loud 'thud'.

"Drake." Cass whispered in worry and she tried to make herself move but was frozen as she couldn't take her eyes away from his glowing black ones as he passed his glance towards her. As soon as their eyes met, Drake's ebony eyes faded to a softer glow of crimson.

"Ah… That fear again. As sweet as it was those few years ago." Drake then commented as he began to pace himself forward, to the side of the motionless hedgehog who continued to stare passed him as too not meet his gaze. "But I must say that I'm displeased with your progress. Shadow the hedgehog." He spoke as he leaned near his ear, his smirk dropped slightly. "That is what they call you, isn't it my servant."

"He doesn't serve a monster like you anymore!" Cassandra snapped as she took a few quick steps forward getting the bat's attention. He straightened himself up as he focused his attention to the fox.

"That is where you are wrong, nieve little pup. You see, you may have noticed his slight slips every now and then. As much as you think he can control his true demonic side, he wont be able too for long with the Ambrose Diamond's affects fading day by day." Drake laughed as he herd a slight growl from the obscure hedgehog beside him. "And you know it, don't you?"

The hedgehog gritted his fangs together roughly as he attempted to hold back the sharp pain in his throat. Drake smirked as he turned once again to face Shadow.

"Go to hell." Shadow growled as he turned to face the bat besides him, whom almost laughed at the comment.

"Been there, done that." Drake spoke as if he had been thinking back hard into his memory for the words. "You of all people should know what hell is like after all." He took a step back. "See you around. Shadow." He chuckled, Spreading his large wings and disappearing in a flash of red, leaving the two in the room alone once more.

Cassandra took a moment to clear her head before rushing to the side of the ebony hedgehog. The pain he had felt soon faded once the bat had left.

"Shadow, are you alright?" She requested as she hugged him softly. He nodded faintly as she let go.

"Lets just get out of here." He commanded as he took Cass by the hand and led her quickly back to the entrance.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile, Rouge had gathered up her things and had prepared herself for the trip that the team of four where going to embark on, when the ash-coloured fox and the darker hedgehog returned.

"All set?" She asked softly as she packed the remaining of her equipment into her small bag. The wolf nodded as he opened the door with the map in his hands, carefully tucking it away snugly into his belt.

"Yeah, lets get moving when they return." He suggested whilst opening the door, greeted by a panting fox and a uneasy looking hedgehog behind her.

"Rex! It's Drake, he's back and I think he wants Shadow and the Vampire crystal and-"

"Whoa! Easy Cassandra slow down!" Rouge interrupted as Cass relieved herself of words for a brief moment to breath and calm down. Rex soon bringing himself to understand what she had said.

"Drake, huh? I thought we left him in Rome." He spoke as he folding his arm across his chest, tapping his muzzle with his finger as if deep in thought.

"Please Rex, we need too call Drano and Frazer." She pleaded. Rex thought for a moment and shook his head.

"We cant just call them and expect them to be here over night." He pointed out as he returned his arms to his side. "Besides, Drake is powerless for the moment. Drano said he would keep the Vampire crystal safe by sending it here, and he has the Angel crystal half way across Mobius. Without the two together Drake cant do any harm. Unless… ya know."

Both canines gazing back at Shadow as he leaned against the small garden wall. "Angel crystal?" Rouge asked out of curiosity. Rex nodded.

"Yeah, there are three main crystals around the world. The Soul, Angel and Vampire crystal." He began. "The Vampire crystal, as you know already, can drain the life force of any being, weather they be living or un-dead... And possibly kill if over used."

"Yeah, and what are the other two for?" Rouge questioned hastily, eager to know more about the dangers that the crystals could bring. Cass took a deep breath as she attempted to relax herself before Rex finally continued.

"The Angel crystal used to create or enhance life force. Sort of like an energy boost, again if over used can give almost total immortality." Rouge's ears twitched to the word as she stood herself up straighter, her mind realising and imagining what could possibly happen if that got into the wrong hands.

"That's bad." She thought aloud as she relaxed herself back against the door frame. Cass and Rex nodded in sync with each other, yet neither realising it as they were too deep into there own imagination. "Then where is that crystal?" The bat finally asked.

"Drake got hold of it once, that's the main reason he's survived for a good few hundred years so far, like Drano and Shadow, along with Drake's other minions that he created with it."

Rouge raised an eyebrow at the mention of Shadow's name. She knew Shadow had been working for Drake once, but she didn't expect him to be a few hundred years old as she gazed back at him, still leaned against the garden wall.

"Drano and Shadow you say?" She repeated getting the attention of the dark hedgehog.

"Almost 312." He indicated whilst tilting his head to one side to get a good view of the bat's almost shocked looking face.

"Really? I wouldn't of taken you for a day over 250" She joked with a slight laugh, then directing her attention back to rex. "And Drano?"

The wolf nodded and thought back. "Drano worked for the head church of Mobius around… 1210 AD I think. Around the same time as when Drake came on the scene. It was only chance that they both came across the Angel crystal at the same time."

"I see. So what about the last one?" Rouge folded her arms across her chest neatly as she listened in carefully, feeling that this one was going to be a lot of trouble.

"The Soul crystal, its way smaller than the two other crystals, but it's way more powerful, able to manipulate large energy sources and control, drain or enhance it anyway the user wishes. But Drano destroyed it years ago so that one isn't a problem."

Rex paused as he stepped towards the door. Rouge following. "So I suppose Drake found out about the Vampire crystal too." She pointed out as she closed the door behind her and made shore to lock it. "That means we need to get too it before he dose."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**Well have to say it, my computer sucks. As it seems to be running really slow and being difficult…**

**And I've only just checked my reviews and I honestly wasn't expecting any o.o (As it seems my sister found out my email password and has been deleting most of my emails evil sis..) **

**So thanks allot for all the nice and helpful reviews!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 - Sunset on Brighten Street**

After what seemed like an eternity of walking too Rex and Shadow, more or less 45 minutes actually, they where starting to get bored of walking in almost silence as the two females ahead of them led the way.

"Are we there yet?" Rex whined impatiently as he dragged his trainers roughly across the pavement of the almost empty street like a spoilt child. Shadow lifted his gaze from the concrete path he was walking, out of frustration towards the irritating wolf, to face the brown canine beside him.

"Stop your persistent moaning every five minutes, your giving me a headache." He growled, silencing Rex as he looked over at the darker hedgehog.

"I hope you mean an ordinary headache." He replied with a slight hint of worry as he slowed himself down to a stop. Shadow groaned a sigh towards the question but didn't say anything in return. Rex awaited an answer as he stood and watched the trio in front of him continuing their walking, and not wanting to be left behind, he shook it off and continued walking too.

"Quit complaining you two and hurry up, its just around the corner. We're on Brighten street." Cass pointed out as she lifted a gloved finger and pointed straight ahead of the group at an old looking sign. Rouge nodded and turned herself so that she was walking backwards to face the two figures following slowly behind her.

"We can stop in the café or something near here, if it makes you two feel any better." The ivory bat suggested. "Besides, you two need your energy."

Rex quickly smiled and sped up a little as a large grin came to his face. "Awesome, I'm starving." He spoke cheerfully before looking back at Shadow, still walking at his usual slow-to-stop pace. "What about you Shad?"

The hedgehog shook his head in refusal towards any idea of food. "I'm not hungry." He simply said. Rex frowned at his answer as he folded his arms.

"Come on. Your never 'not hungry'. We can go visit Mrs Lipan in the Brighten café, and I'm shore you would like to see her again." He indicated. Cass felt worried for Shadow as she thought back to what Drake had said. Not only had it been playing on her mind but she felt it must have been on his too.

"It's alright if you don't want anything, but get some rest while you can." The vixen commanded calmly as Shadow nodded faintly, unshore of any reason why he should care at the moment. Still, Cass smiled, her tails swishing from side to side calmly as the four continued walking on towards a familiar building across the street.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The calm tingling of a small bell above the entrance livened the small Brighten café as the door gently brushed it while it opened. Rex hastily sat himself down at one of the many small oak tables near the bar as Rouge and Cass Sat down opposite him. Shadow made himself comfortable on one of the bar stools next to their table and allowed himself to relax against the well polished oak counter. All being peaceful and quiet apart from the foggy sound emitting from an old radio that appeared to be music, until a certain wolf made his presence known.

"Alright, I'm starving! What dose ever one want?" Rex spoke executively as he glanced at the large menu.

"Rex?" An older voice spoke, grabbing a hold of the four's attention. A pale pink rabbit in a long dark purple skirt with a white apron on entered the room. Her high heels clicking on the dusty old pine floorboards as she entered threw an almost hidden door behind the bar.

"Hello Mrs Lipan." Rex and Cass Waved as she returned a smile.

"I would recognise that voice anywhere on Mobius. Wonderful to see you Rex and Cassandra." She commented as she leaned herself against the bar next to Shadow. "Nice seeing you too, Shadow."

The hedgehog turned his head to face a different direction. "Hello." He groaned quietly so it was barely understandable, except to the large ears of the old rabbit.

"At least he said hi this time." She spoke kindly as she reached down behind the counter and pulled up a few small glasses and a dark blue bottle with no label. Setting each glass down in a row with a small high pitched 'clink' as it connected with the table surface. "So what adventures are you all on now?" She asked pouring out the contents of the bottle into each glass.

"Well you know. The usual." Cass smiled as the small glasses where passed over to each member on the table. "This is Rouge." She smiled, introducing her friend to the old rabbit.

"It's a pleasure." Rouge notified as she lifted the small glass from the table, along with Rex and Cass doing the same. The strong taste invigorated her as she sat herself back.

"Careful it's strong stuff you know." Mrs. Lipan warned with a slight laugh. Rex swallowed and smiled. Gazing over at Rex's bandaged shoulder, Mrs. Lipan couldn't help but be worried for them. "Watch that shoulder of yours Rex, ok?" Rex nodded "You kids and your dangerous little missions and adventures."

"Thanks a bunch, that really helped." Cassandra commented as she placed the small glass back down on the oak table surface and rose from the table. "What do you think, Shad?"

She carefully sat herself down next to Shadow and made herself comfortable as the seat she resided was quit old. The darker hedgehog took the glass in his hand and stared at it without interest. Cass could tell he was thinking about something else.

"Come on Shadow. You shouldn't listen to anything Drake says. He's just trying to play with your head." She said strictly to try and straighten the situation out between them.

"He's right though. I cant keep this charade up forever, Cass." Shadow quietly spoke as he quickly swallowed the almost clear liquid and placing the glass back down on the counter. "I can't just pretend that everything is fine when I know that there's a huge possibility that something could go wrong."

"What could go wrong, dear?" Mrs. Lipan interrupted as she took the glass and wiped it with an old looking piece of cloth. Shadow shook his head.

"It's nothing you should be concerned in." He explained as he stood up and headed for the door. "I think I need some fresh air is all."

"Fresh air? We've been walking in it for like an hour, why do you need more of it?" Rex complained as he puzzled himself over the weird reason that Shadow gave. Rouge was going to say something to stop him but she felt he need time alone. Instead the ivory bat stood from her table and sat next to Cass.

"Is he still uptight about Drake?" She questioned as she watched him leave.

"Yeah, sort of. But its best to give him his space." Cass nodded. "I just don't like seeing him in a bad mood."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Once outside, Shadow rested himself against an old looking lamppost that was stationed next to the quiet road. The sun wasn't far off from setting as it had faded a dark golden colour, barely lighting the small market street over the taller buildings. The hedgehog watched as the remaining people in the street passed by and shop keepers began locking up for the night yet to come.

"Peaceful, isn't it?" A voice beside him spoke. Shadow turned his head slightly to the one side and noticed a scruffy looking woman sitting on the bus stop bench beside him, few small paper bags full with old things you would probably find on the streets. He almost smiled but stopped himself as he turned his head back towards the street.

"Yeah…" He whispered, the woman smiling as she over herd him. She sighed to herself and leaned back.

"Your not from around here, are you?" She pointed out. Shadow took a brief moment to think over the question before answering.

"No." He said simply as he turned once more to face the lonely woman. "What about you? You don't look like you've had the best of days." The woman laughed at the comment and gazed over at the ebony hedgehog.

"I've had better days." She said. Shadow nodded slightly, he was thinking the same thing about himself at that time. He shifted his position from the lamppost as he folded his arms.

"Well, here you are. Why don't you have this." Reaching inside one of her bags and shuffling her hand around, but she quickly pulled her hand out with a small cry that she seethed threw her teeth as she inspected her finger. Shadow didn't need to look at her to tell what she had done. He could smell the warmth of blood that dripped from a freshly made cut across her finger, which she had cut on a sharp piece of glass from a broken bottle.

"Your hurt?" He said, trying to sound as if he didn't know and to keep his mind from the subject of blood. She wiped most of it away on her sleeve as she continued searching as if it never happened.

"Oh, it's nothing. Just a small cut." She assured taking out a small silver pen, a well polished red and black marble design on it. She held it out towards the hedgehog, who stared at it blankly.

"What's this for?" He spoke in a puzzled tone.

"For being so kind to a poor old woman such as me." She answered as he unfolded his arms and slowly took the small pen, unshore of what it contained. A small amount of blood from her finger had gone onto it but he restrained himself from doing anything drastic for now and settled for wiping it off.

"Kind?" He repeated as to keep himself occupied on the situation instead of how hungry he suddenly felt. The woman nodded.

"You talked to me, something most people would never think of doing, and for that I am grateful." Shadow had thought for a moment as he stared at the small trinket. "You feel different, and I don't know why, but I feel you'll need this more than I will."

"What's your name?" He questioned as he took his eyes away to face the woman.

"It doesn't matter about names." She said as she waved it away with her hand as if the question was hanging in front of her. He smiled and nodded as he put the pen away into the safe confinement of his back pocket.

"Thank you." He said as if unshore of what to say. Slowly he straightened himself up and began making his way along the pavement faster than he would usually walk, not wanting to turn around or slow down. His main priority was to get as far away from any source of blood he could for now as an attempt to calm himself. Turning down into the near by alley, he could hear the bell to the café door ring far behind him.

"Shadow!" a familiar voice called stopping him in his tracks, turning to face the ivory bat that made a short glide around the corner of the building to his side. "Where are you heading off too?" She asked as she confronted him.

"No where." He said clearly, his voice darkened as he turned and began walking but was stopped once again by Rouge, shifting herself to the front of Shadow.

"You bet your going no where." She spoke strictly, placing her hands firmly on her hips to show that she wasn't going to let him walk off with telling anyone. "Until you tell me, you aren't going any where but back to the café to Rex and Cass."

Shadow didn't like the fact that he had to have permission from this mortal bat girl just to take a walk to clear his head, especially when he really wasn't in the mood for playing around. He could of easily have killed her while she slept back at her house, he could have taken her by the neck and quickly snap it like a twig any time he chose with out a second thought, and he had done so many times in the past. But something was different this time that was stopping him.

"Well?" She questioned again as she leaned forward whilst tapping the metal base of her boot against the cobbled alley stones with impatience. The hedgehog sighed in defeat and turned around, something he didn't do often, and began walking back the way he came.

Rouge smiled as she watched him turn the corner and disappear around it. At ease with his own safety (and other people who may be unlucky enough to run into him in a bad mood), she was about to follow the ebony hedgehog when a gloved hand was quickly placed over her mouth and another on her shoulder pulling her back into the shadows behind a large greyish-blue dumpster.

Before Rouge could comprehend what was going on, the shady figure responsible for her sudden shock released their grip on her mouth and stood back from her allowing the bat to stand, still having a firm hold of her wrist

"What the bloody hell!" She growled attempting to free herself by jumping up and backing up against the dumpster, soon realising the red fur on the arm of her 'attacker' that had such a tight hold of her wrist, and soon realised the figure standing in front of her was in fact her close friend. "Knuckles?!"

"You didn't think I would leave you with them did you?" He almost chuckled pulling her away from the dumpster and into the path of soft light that shone from a lamppost out in the street.

"Let me go Knux!" She demanded as she roughly attempted to snatch her arm back. But the echidna didn't loosen his grip as he tried his best to calm her down.

"Rouge stop! I don't want you around those criminals and that monster, that murderer!" He spoke sharply pinning her against the wall as a last resort to restrain her and talk some sense into the ivory bat.

"Shadow is not a monster." Rouge cried as she turned her head away. "You don't know anything about him."

"So, it's name is Shadow, huh?" Knuckles slowly softened his grip on her wrist allowing her to sink down to the floor as she held her wrists in tears. As much as he wanted her away from the dangerous trio, he didn't want to force her so much that he could hurt her.

"Damn I forgot all about him." A different male voice spoke from behind them. Both the echidna and the bat turned to see two canines and a darker hedgehog stood a few feet away at the entrance of the alley.

"Rouge are you alright? This creep better not of harmed you." Cass growled running to her side, Knuckles backed off slightly, the fox casting a glare strictly at the echidna. Rex gritted his teeth as he pulled his large wooden bat from his belt and pointed it directly at the red echidna.

"Lets teach you some manners about hurting women." He smirked readying himself to throw a couple of shots at the echidna.

Knuckles smirked slightly as he quickly took a hold of the grey vixen and pulling her into his arms, reaching a small magnum from his belt and pointing the barrel directly at Cassandra's head.

"Cass!" Shadow and Rex called together as they attempted to rush to her aid, halting abruptly as the echidna took a step back. Not hesitating to draw back the hammer of the gun with a sharp 'click' that silenced every other sound around it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 - Infiltration**

The echidna tightened his fingers to inshore that he keep a strong grip on his metal weapon as he shifted his feet into a more comfortable stance. His eyes constantly fixed on the every move of the ebony hedgehog and the lighter brown wolf that stood only a few feet away. Still Shadow remained still, not daring to move in fear that he may provoke the threat to his allies.

"Please!" Cass begged as she felt the cold metal of the barrel press firmly against the side of her head as she did all she could to stay calm. But the echidna had other things on his mind.

"I don't know what the hell you are, Hedgehog. Or how fast or powerful you may seem. But I doubt your fast enough to catch a speeding bullet." He taunted with a slight smirk as he began slowly backing away deeper into the alley. As much as Shadow hated it, he had to admit to himself that the echidna was right.

Instead of trying to reason with Knuckles, he decided to try a different tactic, he slowly began walking forward. The echidna noticed this, and it kind of surprised him that he would try something foolish such as that. No matter to him, he immediately made up his mind and didn't hesitate to fire towards the hedgehog. The bullet impacted his chest with force causing him to have to take a half-step backwards to keep his balance. Cass screamed slightly as she closed her eyes tightly in hope that the gun had not been fired towards her, but soon realised that she was indeed, still alive and unharmed. She soon realised who he had hit as she eased her jade eyes open.

"Ok. That hurt." Shadow coughed as he felt the bleeding hole in his chest with one of his gloved hands. Once found, he buried his gloved index finger into the small wound and carefully pulled out the bloody casing that was imbedded in it and tossing it aside. The echidna's eyes widened at the sight as he took a step back.

"What's the hell?" He said directing the gun towards the hedgehog once more. "What are you? Some crazy loon that escaped from a mental hospital?"

"You idiot Knuckles, he's a vampire." Rouge pitched in as she glared at Knuckles, now at her feet. His once confused and slightly shaken form quickly relaxed as he took his eyes away from the hedgehog's glowing red ones.

"Right, so your telling me this hedgehog is a living, breathing, bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell." He said with sarcasm as he confronted Rouge beside him, her expression and tone suggesting that she wasn't kidding.

"Well, not exactly living… or breathing for that matter." Rex ruled as he compared facts. Shadow rolled his eyes as he licked the blood off his fingers, the other four figures in the alley too into their convocation of the supernatural. The metallic taste making him feel slightly at ease as he felt himself calm down, and the small wounds start to immediately heal themselves. He had long gotten bored of Knuckles and every one else talking and preferred to just kill the echidna and leave, but he had his limits and rules like any other.

"Please Knuckles, just let her go. All I am asking is for your help here." Rouge begged. "We can talk about this, I'll explain everything just please don't hurt my friends." The bat spoke as she held her hands out for the scared fox. Knuckles had to think about this for a moment. He had always trusted the decisions that she had made in the past, and she was usually right. And he didn't want any harm to come too Rouge so he felt he should listen to what she had to say for now.

"Ok Rouge, Just as long as that thing stays away from you, you can tell me what this whole thing is about." He explained, casting a glare towards Shadow as he carefully let go of the fox. Cass quickly ran to the arms of Rouge as the echidna put his weapon away.

"Lets go back to the Brighten Café and I'll explain everything." Rouge assured as she looked back at knuckles, who nodded in agreement.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"So… who are these three and what is all this about?" Knuckles questioned. His arms folded firmly as he leaned back on his chair awaiting the answers that he needed to hear. Rouge took a quick sip of her coffee before turning to the three behind her.

"Well, That lively young lady is Cassandra." She said pointing over her shoulder at the grey vixen sitting with Rex and Shadow at the bar.

"Call me Cass." She smiled waving back slightly, still unshore about the echidna. Knuckles simply nodded as Rouge moved on.

"Next to her is my old friend Rex." Rouge continued. The wolf nodded with a slight smile as he lifted his hand in the air, soon dropping it back to his side. "And next to that is Shadow." The hedgehog did nothing but fold his arms and look a different direction. That alone was enough, after all Knuckles and him had met before.

"Shadow is in a bad mood lately." Cass explained as Knuckles narrowed his eyes at the hedgehog but not so much that any one would notice. With a deep sigh, Rouge continued.

"And guys, this is a close friend and former team mate of mine, Knuckles the echidna. He also works at GUN HQ as a private officer." Rouge smiled looking back over to the trio.

"Awesome." Cass smiled back as she sat herself up. The crimson echidna allowed his eyes to examine the three sitting at the bar. They seemed friendly, but over the short period of time his impressions of them remained in his mind like a stubborn stain. But not wanted to upset Rouge, he allowed himself to listen to what they had to say.

"So… what's the story behind you three?" The echidna questioned after thinking. Cass cleared her throat as she thought of where to start, after all it was a long story. "Rex and I go far back, we and our two sisters used to travel around the world." She explained after pinpointing a place to start. "We went to Rome for a few weeks, that's where we met Shadow. But he wasn't pleasant and calm like he is now, he was quit literally a 'bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell.' As you said before."

"He just suddenly decided that he wanted to be a good bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell one day then?" Knuckles sarcastically asked as he shook his head. "I just cant believe I have to believe this shit." Rouge sighed heavily.

It took a while for Cass and Rex to try to think something up to say to the hot-headed echidna that would make him understand as it seemed he wasn't going to make any attempt to understand anyway. So Rouge decided to step in.

"Knuckles, you know the Ambrose diamond that the general keeps locked up on the top floor?" Rouge questioned. The echidna nodded in agreement. "Well it's a long story, but we need the crystal to stop Shadow from having his little killing slips every now and then, and possibly stop an evil dark lord from taking over Mobius while we're at it."

Rouge didn't need to say anymore as knuckles smirked to himself. He expected that there was probably some crazy evil person wanting world domination some were in this story. He sat himself up and looked over to the Hedgehog. "Ok, so who or what exactly is this evil lord?"

"Hominus Nocturna." Cass spoke out confident and clearly to Knuckles as she watched his puzzled face unfold before her, almost making her laugh if not for the seriousness of the situation. Cass realised that he would never be able to understand what she had said without an explanation, something greatly appreciated by the echidna. "A Vampire, same as Shadow." She said plainly so he could understand.

Knuckles nodded after a brief moment, looking again back over at Shadow; his blood-red eyes made him feel nothing but hate and fear towards the hedgehog. He didn't know why he disliked him, or feared him for that matter. After all he reminded him slightly of his old friend Sonic, but he was completely the opposite.

"And how exactly did Mr. happy over there get to being a… homin--nocto whatever anyway."

"2 week summer holiday in Transylvania." Shadow smirked sarcastically as an attempt to silence the questions of the echidna, whom for a second believed him before realising the expression on his face. The ebony hedgehog only angered Knuckles more as he released that confusing him was the hedgehog's intentions.

"A 900 year old vampire bat after the crystal also. His most common name is Drake, an evil dark lord vampire that wants to rule Mobius. So you can call it no big deal."

"So… Drake an evil 900 year old vampire-bat, the 1st bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell anda dark lord wanting to take over Mobius along with his vampire buddies… no big deal, huh?" Knuckles restated as he thought back to everything that had been said in the last 5 minutes or so and placing it all into one sentence. Shadow sighed as he rolled his eyes and clapped faintly after he was finished.

"Wow. Give the spiny anteater a medal." He spoke sarcastically as Rouge shook her head in the fact that she knew the two together wasn't going to be a good idea. Shadow didn't have time to be concerned with this echidna. He had plenty of tasks to complete and fighting Knuckles wasn't on his list, but he couldn't help but dislike the attitude and personality of the echidna towards himself. Still, he couldn't just go around picking fights with people who he disliked or who had angered him, and that was a lot of people. Then his chain of thought was broken again.

"You see, with Shadow, when ever one particular emotion is heightened for too long, his eh… darker vampire side, will do anything it can to either embrace or reject that emotion." Rex attempted to explain as best he could to the echidna. "That's the reason Shadow seems grumpy and serious all the time. If he feels pleasure, affection or excitement then his darker side will attempt to ruin those moments by embracing his anger, sadness and jealousy. We need the Vampire crystal to stop that."

"Talk about a slip personality…" Knuckles thought to himself. Cassandra then speaking.

"I still think we should consult Drano or Frazer about this before we do anything. Things have gone wrong once, it can happen again." She thought aloud as tapped her finger on the counter surface making a soft thumping that seemed to almost echo amongst the group.

"Grate. And who are they? More vampires? or do you have the werewolf and ghost friends too?" Knuckles huffed as he stood himself up. Shadow growled in his throat at Knuckles' sarcastic tone and wasn't sure if he was taking the whole situation seriously enough for his own good. Personally, he didn't care what that crimson furred pest thought about him, he wanted to just to simple reach over the small oak table and snap his neck like a useless twig, and listen to his last pathetic breath, wanting it to be a terrified scream of pain…

"Don't ask, it's a really long story." Rex almost laughed, again taking Shadow out of his wonderful daydreams as he turned his gaze towards the window, not quit realizing that he had zoned out. The sun had set a short time ago as the sky had faded to a purplish black making the remaining clouds look silver-ish pink. Then Rex spoke again. "We can start to make our way now. Shadow your with me. Knuckles, Cass and Rouge, I want you to go to the roof to try and get a better transmission." The wolf suggested as he turned towards the group who nodded confidently.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A few minutes later, Cass, Knuckles and Rouge where on the roof of the small café, where it wasn't exactly cold, but the gentle breeze cooled the air around the two making it seem colder than it was. Rouge took her laptop from her bag and a few other devices that Rex had in his, and had Knuckles help her set them all up whilst Cass had found that the Café, and the large building opposite, shared the same power supply and phone cables. Locating the power box at the other side of the building was easy and she was connecting a long black cable of her own to the power lines.

"All set." Rouge called as looked back over her shoulder to the fox. Cass lifted the other end of the black cable and a smaller yellow cable and quickly made her way over to the ivory bat and the computer.

"Right, lets connect this power cable to the sync cable and we should be free to use the main power supply as we wish…" She explained as she connected wires and cabled here and there to the larger black cable via a sort of plug. Knuckles sighed and nodded as the fox continued to babble on about how the cables worked. "…And the connective cable to the system's main cable to get control--"

Rouge and Knuckles went really listening to anything that Cass was saying as she worked away. The white bat was thinking more about how the two males where going to cope together on the mission with just the two of them. She wanted to send Knuckles to go with them but she felt that Shadow had left him with a bad impression. Knuckles just sat for a moment nodding to everything Cass said, his mind was also else where. His deep violet eyes exploring the slim toned figure of the bat in front of him, from her perfectly shaped ears to her well looked-after boots.

"Rouge." A voice called beside the bat. Rouge quickly turned to face an ebony hedgehog sitting on the edge of the roof beside her.

"Shadow? Why aren't you down with Rex?" She asked as stood herself up and walked over to him, getting the attention of the fox and echidna.

"You're the only one who can read your map." He smirked slightly as he waved it in the air. Rouge smiled. Knuckles' eyes narrowed to the hedgehog as he watched the bat take the hedgehog's hand and jump down off the roof.

Back down at the building entrance, Rex peered threw the glass of one window. The place seemed quiet and empty from what he could see but he knew other wise. Cameras in each corner of the room and the occasional armed guards pacing the building showed that this was going to be tough.

"Ok, we need to find a way in. Have the girls and the echidna got the security offline?" Rex questioned as he turned to face Shadow but he wasn't where he had thought he was. "Damn it Shad." He sighed as he then realised Shadow and Rouge heading back towards him.

"I though I would tag along to keep an eye on you two." Rouge advised as she brought herself to a stop.

Rex laughed to himself as he turned to inspect in tall building. "So, Rouge do you know of any other way in? The front door seems to be locked with some sort of scanner." He explained. Rouge thought carefully as she looked up and down the building. Rouge thought for a moment, when her thoughts where interrupted suddenly by every light in the street shut off leaving the trio in dark apart from the remaining purplish light of the sky and the soft red glow of Shadow's eyes.

"We could always use the front door." Rouge smiled as she turned towards the door and easily opening it. Rex smiled and nodded as he quickly stepped inside. Shadow rolled his eyes as he too made his way inside, forgetting the fact that the two could see it.

Rex and Rouge quickly managed to hide behind a desk as a few guards walked past, Shadow on the other hand managing to use his speed to slip past them with ease. He checked the hallways too make shore the coast was clear before signalling with his hand for the others to follow him over to an empty room and closed the door.

"Ok, we're in. Nice work Cass." Rouge commented as she spoke threw a small device that she had hidden in her glove. Her call was then replied by the sound of the grey vixen giggling a thanks back at the comment causing Rouge to smile also. "We need to be quick." Rouge then set out the map on a table and marked off where they where as she looked around the room they where in for anything that could aid them. Rex spotted something.

"Vents?" Rex pointed out as he positioned himself on top of a desk and removed the gate to the vent, peering inside, scanning up and down though not shore what he was looking for. Rouge too jumped up silently onto the desk and scanned inside.

"It has plenty of cracks in the metal." Rouge pointed out. The wolf wondered what she meant by it. There was plenty of space too fit a inside as the bat attempted to lift herself into it. "If there are cracks in the metal that must mean that this isn't used for poisonous gas or lasers." Shadow and Rex paused for a moment and stared at the bat.

"And you didn't mention that why?" Rex questioned with a slight uneasiness.

"It must of slipped my mind." She smiled. "Besides, the lasers probably will be offline seeing as the power is off. Just avoid sealed off vents and you should be safe from the gas."

"Your going to have to hurry, there are more people coming." Shadow commanded as he moved himself away from the door and towards the other two. Rex quickly hopped up into the vent and Shadow soon followed, replacing the gate as if it had never been moved.

"We have to find a way to get too the top floor, any ideas?" Rouge questioned. Shadow and Rex thought in silence for a moment as they continued to crawl on threw the cold metal vent, the faint light from a tiny torch key ring, (one of many key ring gadgets Rex had attached to his belt) lighting the way.

Until Shadow got an idea. He listened carefully, there was nothing but the sound of people mumbling to one another and there footsteps on the metal-tiled floors. "A building this big has to have elevators, right?" Rouge nodded confidently. "Cass switched all the power off, and I hear no sign of them working so I'm guessing that means the elevator shafts are going to be rather clear."

"I love your ears." Rouge laughed quietly as they came to another gate. With luck, it happened to lead into another empty room, and from the looks of it, a rather empty storage. Rouge managed to pull the gate off and jump down onto the metal plated floor.

"We should spilt up to see what we can find." Rex suggested as Shadow too managed to pull himself from the vent. "Shadow, stay with Rouge. I'll keep searching the vents and I'll give you a call on your radio if I find anything." Rouge and Shadow nodded as Rex once again disappeared into the vent. The ivory bat looked around them at the many boxes and useless materials that had been left in the dark room, spotting a small door.

She slowly opened the door and peeked out, revealing a long corridor with many strange glass doors and viewing windows each labelled with a number. Though due to the darkness that was cast upon the building by the power cut, it was unclear what was behind them. On the wall read 'B block' engraved onto a large metal plaque, and just below that was another smaller plaque that read 'B-213' marking the cell door that lay below it. The pattern of numbered plaques and glass doors increased as Rouge and Shadow progressed down the corridor in almost silence.

"What do you think are in those cells?" Shadow questioned to brake the eerie silence that danced among them. Rouge shrugged in response.

"To be honest, I'm not shore I want to find out." Was her almost fearful reply. Then they came to a room that had a different door, but it was obvious that it wasn't a room at all. It was an elevator.

Shadow had no troubled pulling back the doors as the power was off and nothing was stopping it from opening, only to then reveal a long shaft, which Rouge almost walked in on if not for the ebony hedgehog stopping her.

"Wow, The building looked shorter from the outside." Shadow indicated as he pointed towards the top and bottom of the shaft, which at the moment was none existent from what he could see. "We have to get all the way to the top of there?" He groaned as he released that it would harder that he had first predicted.

"Stop complaining and grab the cable." Rouge spoke hovering herself beside the cable with a few wing flaps. Shadow growled to himself.

"Easy for you to say, you can fly." Shadow huffed under his breath but Rouge easily herd it and folded her arms.

"Shadow. If you want to use the stairs that's fine by me." She spoke calmly to try and convince him, and it seemed to work. The hedgehog shrugged and leaped over to the metal cable that emerged from the darkness far above him and grasping a firm hold of it. The line swung slightly before steadily coming to an almost stand still.

--

Meanwhile, currently on the roof of the café, Knuckles was lying on his back on the cold quiet roof watching Cass, keeping a close eye on security of the building to make shore the group hadn't been found out.

"So, I know the details about Shadow, what about this Drake person? I mean is he really that bad?" Knuckles had questioned, his mind still adjusting to the supernatural sides of the story. Cass nodded immediately after a moment of her mind processing the question.

"Oh yes. He turned Shadow into a bloodthirsty killer as a part of his 'night warriors' plan. Drake held possession of the Soul crystal, and used its power to create a new vampire minion for his little clan every so many years when he got bored, making a total of 5 in the years he had the crystal before it was destroyed, Shadow being his last and most feared, the '2nd night hedgehog' in the group." The Fox explained as she zoned out for a brief minute or two, imagining what it must have been like to see it all take place.

Knuckles almost did the same but as soon as she stopped talking he was brought out of his imagination. "What vampire minions did Drake create then?" He inquired

Cass had to ponder the question at hand as a light silence that seemed to be brought along with a cold wind set among them. "2 hedgehogs, a cat and two wolves."

Knuckles nodded as all was quiet again. Knuckles closed his eyes as he tried to imagine what Drake and his minions may have looked like; until a muffle noise that sounded like a quick flap of leather and a cold wind swept his face. Opening his eyes and sitting himself up he didn't see much in the dark except Cass, sat down and watching the screen same as she was before, a soft glow of blue swept across her face.

Cass yawned with a slight cough as she directed her attention back to knuckles. "What?" She inquired after she noticed him staring either at, or passed her. Turning around to see what it was and spotting the dark figure that stood behind her only a few feet away.

Both of them froze immediately as two glowing blue pupils watched them with interest, a sharply curved smirk lining it's muzzle as it paced itself slowly towards Cass and Knuckles, the light that emitted from the laptop screen glistening it's short yet sharp teeth that lined it's smile while a long black-hooded cloak was placed over it's figure.

"Hello Cassandra." It laughed in a deep tone.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Finally!" Shadow growled with happiness as he reached over and pulled the doors open, nearly ripping it out the wall in the process. They had reached the top floor at long last. Smirking at his achievement of his goal, the ebony hedgehog proudly walked into the current room they resided in. It was a rather plain room, not much other than a few security cameras locked on the door and two strange statues either side of the door.

"Behind that door." Rouge hinted as she pointed towards the door at the other end of the room. Shadow turned and nodded confidently, his smirk widened.

"Yeah.. I can feel it there."

--

-- -- -- -- -- -- --

**Well… longer than most chapters but yeah. I had a lot of help with this one from my sister to my awesome friends, (note that detail isn't really me.. oo) but at least we got there eventually. **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Vampire and Vampire hunter

There was a small yet strong silence as Rouge began inspecting the cameras that watched the door constantly, a red light that flickered every few seconds seemed to show that they had not been affected by the power shut off, possibly running on a separate supply of power. Shadow still remained quiet as he stood at the side of the white bat and watched on with monotony at the tedious silence that danced among the room like an annoying child to him.

"So how do you suppose we get inside without being noticed?" The hedgehog then questioned as he straightened himself up, growing increasingly bored of standing around. The bat too expected the challenge to be a difficult one, and a soft noise stopped her from replying as Rouge checked her wrist radio.

"Rouge, have you got to the top floor yet? is Shadow there?" The wolf at the other end asked, the hedgehog walking over to rouge and leaning over at the mention of his name. She turned and looked at the hedgehog as he did so and back at her communicator.

"Yeah, he's right here next to me, we're currently waiting outside the room doors." She told as Shadow nodded confidently, surly the wolf would be able to aid the situation as Shadow knew they had faced far worse, opening a door without being seen was something that could quit easily be done with a little help from there friend.

"Alright, I followed your map as best I could and I'm on the 5th floor right now, and I'm on my way up via the elevator shafts as soon as I get there." Rouge smiled and looked at Shadow who walked back over to the wall, Rex hearing his footsteps walking away. "Rouge, keep an eye Shadow. If he starts acting strange try and avoid talking or turning your back on him." Rex advised. "If he does slip don't listen to anything he may say or try to do to you." Rouge nodded confidently and looked back over to the hedgehog.

Shadow leaned all his weight on one leg as he rested himself against the wall, chilling to the touch, right side of the room cold room. He had started to feel light and easier since he had began scaling the elevator shaft, and the closer he got to the doors a few feet away, the better he felt. For the first time in a while he felt calm and at ease, and very light-headed, but that would soon change.

"I suspected that this would be a little more of a challenge." He commented with a slight laugh as he gazed at the bat who had ended her convocation, and then he looked at the door. In his head he was questioning weather that door was an ordinary door, or perhaps something more challenging and dangerous lay beyond it, something more up to his considerable entertaining standards. Like a few feet of metal barricades, insinuating lasers, armed guards maybe? No, he gladly welcomed the idea of armoured robots of grate speed and power, large armoured tanks and heavily armed soldiers out numbering them and for him to wait, just for the last second so he could massacre them all, turning the city into a graveyard of bloody scrap metal and human parts if he had to.

"Shadow?" The white bat questioned for the 8th time starting to get frustrated with the attempts to get the hedgehogs attention and silence his strange behaviour. Her call finally answered with a gaze of annoyance from Shadow along with a slight groan to know what his name was summoned for.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Meanwhile Rex tampered with his communicator as he attempted to get a signal to the Red echidna and the grey vixen, but got nothing but pointless static from the small device.

With a deep sigh of defeat, the wolf decided to give up on his pointless attempts and wanted to try and find his way to the elevator shaft as soon as possible, knowing that the hedgehog hadn't had his usual daily sleep or feed in more than 24 hours would probably cause problems. But nevertheless, he had to get to the elevator.

He turned himself sharply to one side causing an extremely irritating pain to shake his body, originating from his bandaged shoulder, a painful reminder that his wound was indeed still there. "Damn." He uttered to himself as he roughly capped his hand over it and squeezing it slightly as an attempt to ease the pain but only seemed to make it worse, removing it after a moment to a realisation that a seemingly large amount of blood was seeping threw the thin layer of fabric. "Oh damn, that's not good."

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

About 2 minutes later the ebony hedgehog stood only a foot or two besides the bat as he watched, scanner her physique with his lifeless red eyes, he begged silently in his mind for some kind of entertainment to relieve from his constant boredom. It would be so easy to take her life right at that moment as she was alone in the room with him, nothing but the blank metal walls and the dark abyss of the elevator shaft that watched them.

He shook his head quickly. What was he thinking? Why? He didn't dare wish to think like that about his friend. Mentally shaking himself back to reality the hedgehog was almost taken aback by the sudden feeling that coursed his thoughts like an out of control train, like a wash of coldness that seemed to drain him of reason and emotion, as a light and familiar scent of something tickled his nose. Blood.

"Are you feeling alright? Its like your fine and then you just zone out every now and then." Rouge spoke as she cocked her head to one side getting the hedgehogs attention. He huffed in objection as he folded his arms and tried his best to ignore her and the delicious aroma that only added to his sudden craving and attempted to focus, but he wouldn't be able to just ignore it. As hard as he tried there would always be that one part of him that wouldn't allow him off that easily.

His stubbornness didn't surprise her but it made her feel slightly uneasy. "If your not killing or reading something then your just not satisfied are you." The bat growled with frustration as she stood herself up, taking her icy turquoise eyes away from his fiery red orbs that seemed to burn with nothing but hatred for other beings, not able to detect his crimson eyes flash an almost pitch black as she began walking towards the door once more.

She then felt something cold and firm being placed against her waist, checking to see what it was she then noticed that it was a familiar gloved hand. Another then being placed around her throat as she realised who's it was. His fingers slowly arranging themselves into a comfortable yet tight position as the bat drew breath in shock, the tightness making breathing a difficult task to perform, but she was able to accumulate words from the limited quantity of air she could get at a slight struggle.

"There are lots of things that satisfy me, Rouge." Came the whisper of a malice voice in her ear, cold and thoughtless unlike that she had just herd a moment ago from the ebony hedgehog, she realised this was something she had feared from the hedgehog, the inner demon that would do anything to escape it's immortal prison at any cost. The hedgehog hushed a growl deep in his vocal cords as he pressed his obscure form firmly against hers. The bat froze as she felt his grip around her neck tighten thus creating a sharp pain, but his grip soon loosened after he realised she couldn't breath from his actions. He didn't want to harm the young batgirl, her heart-beat quickening only tempting him more, he couldn't help himself.

"Sh-Shadow calm down.." The bat whispered shallowly in a small hope that her friend was still listening, but got no reply. Screaming out for help was an option as the demonic creature behind her had slowly relieved himself of the chance of choking the girl, but they both knew that it wouldn't help her, her cries only falling on deaf ears if she attempted it. He welcomed her screams or struggle for her life. Maybe it would help him jog his sense of reason, or just add to his enjoyment of the little game further.

"What to do? Struggle, beg, scream?" The hedgehog smirked as he listened closely, leaning his drooling fangs over her shoulder so that both their faces were align with each other as he made his desired request and awaited her answer. "How about a heart-warming brake down into tears?" He spoke harshly in a mocking and uncaring tone, knowing that he could quite easily accomplish that. The bat remained silent in constant fear of how long his slip of madness would last before he came to his senses.

But it wouldn't matter, he quickly lowered his fangs to her delicate peace skin, piecing the surface like a hot knife threw butter with the result of his action being his much desired reward. Rouge winced in pain as she felt the tears build up in her eyes and slowly make a river that ran down her cheeks. Much like the rich ruby flood that emerged from the small entrances to her neck, which his sharp canines had created, that formed a stream of crimson that overflowed his mouth and drizzled down his muzzle and her shoulder, small droplets of the red substance falling to the floor like raindrops.

Rouge felt light and dizzy at a sudden moment that hit her like a wave over her body, her mind hoping that this was all some bad dream, or at this point the twisted cruelty of her own childish nightmares, but unfortunately for her it was neither. She could feel her legs become weaker below her as she held onto the dark hedgehog's arm as support, waiting and hoping that any second the ordeal would end, not needing acute hearing to be able to hear her own blood being swallowed up in large and deep gulps that seemed to echo threw her body louder and louder each time.

The strong delectable taste against Shadow's tongue gave him a feeling of relief and ecstasy as he swirled his tongue around her bleeding wounds as to savour the moment that seemed to drag on for minutes, until something caught his attention that silenced the demonic hedgehog.

"Shadow!" A strange voice called from behind him. His ears flickered at the sound that had disturbed his meal as he lifted his head. A light 'thwip' of something travelling threw the air at a lightning fast speed caught his attention but before he could comprehend it a small pain in the back of his shoulder and then he realised it. A small silver dart. Immediately it began to irritate him as the pain began to spread into a wave of burning, soon accompanied by too more small darts that caused him to release his tight hold on the white batgirl whom fell to the unforgiving steel floor.

Taking a deep growl in discomfort, Shadow slumped himself down to the floor as he sat himself upon the metal tiles as he removed the three small oddities that had embedded themselves into the flesh of his arm. All but a burning sensation quickly disappearing into the back of his mind along with his vision and consciousness.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Shadow?" The white bat called in a hoarse voice as she opened her eyes with a slight flicker and looked up at the shady silhouette she could make out in front of her, finding that talking was still an extremely hard task to accomplish.

"Don't worry Rouge, he wont wake up for a while." The bat quickly turned at the strange voice that was completely alien to her, and the sudden mention of her name.

"Who are you, what's going on?" She spoke sitting herself up quickly but having a aching pain spread her body as she leaned herself back onto the floor and awaited her eyes to adjust, only to see a hooded figure at her side.

"Easy, don't rush yourself. You where bitten by your hedgehog friend, but it's nothing to worry about for now. As for him… just give him fifteen minutes and he should be back on his feet." He finished with an assuring toothy smile, patting Rouge's shoulder causing her to notice a small collar type of bandage over the wound on her neck. He sighed and walking towards the other member of the room, Shadow.

"Who are you?" Rouge questioned again in frustration as the figure turned to face her once more, removing his hood and intern his cloak. Rouge's eyes widened as she took a step back. "Who the hell?" She questioned in confusion as she looked upon the figure in front of her that took on almost an exact resemblance of her wolf friend, except his fur was a snowy white.

"As it seems you need a friend in this moment in time I shall assist you as your friend." He spoke as she turned to the side of the wolf. He nodded and reached down to his belt, removing a small switchblade of sorts. "But you can call me Zero. I'm a vampire hunter, shame I got here to late to prevent the vampire from biting you. He is truly a fast and dangerous foe."  
He almost seemed to growl in disappointment to himself but turned back to Rouge and smiled as she brought herself to her feet, using the wall as a guide. She felt very weak and light-headed as images of the incident replayed itself in her mind like a fussy broken record.

Her mind thought about it for a moment as she steadied herself into balance so that she could stand, unaware of how close she was to fainting, but she didn't have time to complain about how she felt as she stumbled to the white wolf's side.

"Is he ok?" She spoke after a few short breaths. The wolf turned his head to face the still unconscious hedgehog and nodded gradually. She smiled lightly as he turned back to face her. "Zero. Thank you."

She took a moment to examine her knew ally as she looked closely at his glowing blue eyes that seemed kind and caring, but at the same time saddened and lonely, reminding her of the ebony hedgehog's eyes. She cast her gaze down at the strange gun of sorts that lie snugly tucked away in his belt along with a few other things, supposing it was something that he had used to temporarily calm Shadow.

"I see, you must be a friend of Rex the wolf." Rouge said pointing to communicator that was almost identical to the one she, Rex and Cass held position of. The smaller things that were also connected to his long dark blue jacket like ammunition consisting of small silver darts, to bullets and arrows, suggesting that he took his profession extremely seriously and was experienced in these sorts of cases.

"Ah, well you see that's just the person I was looking for."

x-x-x-x-x-x

**Ok rather short chapter again, but I've had to write this up in the school library (again with my friend's help) but I managed to get a chance to read up on some cool books like twilight and saw… anyway, enough of my obsessions with vampirism and gory stories, hope ya enjoy this short chapter. I shall be uploading the next one in a short time once I get my computer up and running.**


	11. Chapter 11

**_Chapter 11 - Meeting Up_**

A short series of kicks to the unforgiving steel gate finally paid off as the metal parted from the wall and dropped to the floor with a loud 'clink' and a pair of boots touching down on the metal panels of the floor soon followed.

"Right then, which direction now?" Rex questioned to himself, taking a few deep breaths. After being caged up in the vents for an hour or two was starting to take his toll on him, and his shoulder was giving him hell to pay for it. Now he was glad to finally be free of the icy cold breeze and lack of space that the vents provided.

A quick flick of his torch to brighten up his surroundings quickly gave him a good idea of what to do next. The walls a metallic grey just like every other he had seen but the floor was almost like glass. The sound of footsteps echoing in his direction suggested that he had to be quick to advoid any contact with G.U.N guards. So Rex, wasting no time in attempting to clean up his messy escape from the vents, began walking.

After a short while, he came to a large metal door that, with hardly any trouble, he managed to open with help from his trusty black metal baseball bat to reveal an elevator. With a smirk of accomplishment sped on his face he entered it.

Once inside he searched for a control panel at the side of the door, a large steel rectangle covered in small numbered buttons. Taking a guess at what he thought was obviously the top floor, he pushed the highest digit on the metal panel and waited.

Nothing happened. "Worth a try." He shrugged as he looked about for anything else he could use and he quickly spotted the emergency hatch above him and got another idea. Placing his bat back in it's normal spot in his belt he, he checked his communicator.

~x~x~

Zero and Rouge quickly turned their attention to the small bleep that came from the communicator that the ebony hedgehog held on his wrist.

"Think that could be Rex?" Rouge questioned as she and the wolf moved over to investigate.

"I don't know." Zero admitted with a shrug as he bent down and lifted Shadow's arm to his view. The hedgehog emitted a deep groan in discomfort as he did so, leaning forward slightly, but Zero ignored it and pressed the small red button on the device.

"Nice of you to finally join me." Came a mumbled call from the communicator after a slight hiss of static. Zero smirked as he looked up to Rouge, who was busy checking to see if Shadow was awake.

"Sorry if I took long. I've always thought that rushing leads to mistakes." The ivory wolf commented followed by a short pause. By now Rex had figured out that it wasn't Shadow's voice answering him.

"Long time, Zero. I hope your not here to make trouble" He pointed out, his voice darkened slightly. "Why are you the one answering Shadow's communicator? Is Shadow and Rouge alright?"

"I'm not the one making trouble today." Zero sighed as he took a moment to gaze back at Rouge and the dark hedgehog, his eyes flickering open partly every few seconds and drifting back to there closed position. "Rouge is fine. Shadow is unavailable at the moment though, can I take a message?"

"Turn around and maybe I can tell you." Rex answered. Zero and Rouge quickly turned and noticed the brown canine step from the elevator shaft behind them with his classic smile and give a slight wave. "Thats better."

~x~x~

Knuckles sat up suddenly, hitting his head on a metal pipe hanging over him in the process, and after a brief shout of curses he managed to wobble to his feet.

Cassandra quickly ran to his side and helped him stand up straight. "Ouch, are you ok?" She almost giggled.

Knuckles huffed at her laughter as he held his gloved hand over the painful bump on his head. "What the hell just happened?"

"You just hit your head on that pipe there..." she pointed out as Knuckles rolled his eyes.

"Well no shit Sherlock, even I could tell that. I meant before I was laying on the floor."

"You got yourself knocked out while trying to attack that 'stranger' with _my_ laptop." Cass answered as she gazed down at her device. Knuckles growled with frustration as he removed his hand from his head and looked around at the wires and other devices around him.

"Who was that guy? He was a walking weapon shop." The echidna managed not to shout as he sat himself down next to the grey vixen.

"He's a long time paranormal hunter." Cass acknowledged. "And before you open your mouth, he isn't a _slayer_ of the paranormal, he's a _hunter_."

The red echidna sat in silence for a moment as he thought about it, something that wasn't really his strong point but it still helped him come up with a reasonably simple question. "What's the difference?"

"Look at this." Cass rolled her eyes as she prepared her simple answer. She removed a small object from beside her now broken laptop, (all thanks going to Knuckles) and held it up to the echidna, a small silver dart. "He dropped this, its filled with a special chemical used to temporarily knock out anything it hits, not kill them."

Knuckles nodded as he folded his arms. "I see. Like a tranquilizer." Cass smiled and gave a positive nod. "So that means he is either after the diamond or Shadow."

"Why else would he be here?" She shrugged. "He took the communicator we had so I'm guessing he wants to use it to trace the signal to them. All we can do is wait."

~x~x~

****

Shannon. --- Wow… talk about difficulties.

My brother has had a lot of things to do with collage, work, girlfriends and so on… so after 4 months of him doing almost nothing on the story, I'm taking the liberty to try and get a chapter or two finished for him… my apologies for the ridiculously long wait and if I'm not as good as my brother.. O.o … I'm only 13 so be merciful on me.

---

It did take me a few days to read the story so far and get a good idea of what it's roughly about… its taken me about 3-4 weeks to write the chapter (school in between) and I still don't know what the basic plot is so I am kind of making this all up as I go along… so I'm trying to get these done ASAP.

~~Merry Christmas -- Shannon.


End file.
